I've Been Too Kind to This Series | Iron Flame Review

[@walliam5506]

Armor: $50 Weapons: $40 Dragon Saddles: $75 New Recruit Murder Program: $500,000,000 Rations: $25 Someone who’s good at the economy please help me budget this. My army is dying.

[@whiteraven562]

No, no, they don't spend money on saddles, remember? That would mean Xaden couldn't be a super-special-awesome boyfriend by inventing a dragon saddle for Violet

[@Tytoalba777]

cut spending on the new recruit murder program

[@Milosz0pl]

Don't you worry - I am a student of economy! Hmmm. Have you considered reducing budget on weapons? Just let them run with daggers instead

[@evilpigeonsify]

cut back on rations and tell the army it's so the people back home can eat better.

[@patriciasoares3474]

You need to put some money into bringing one cadet back to life.

[@tyler-df3wy]

What gets me is that Yarros is a military wife whose other books are military romances, but the army in this series is about as accurate as Onision’s

[@palamedes4740]

Is it? Why would she go against the propaganda of the US army if she's known it all her life. It's not a bug it's a feature

[@nionashborn7626]

​@@palamedes4740 The US army is functional, because they don't encourage soldiers to MURDER each other, and Yarros has the information to understand this

[@NoelleTakestheSky]

Makes me wonder is there’s a ghost writer in there somewhere. This level of disconnect seems intentional, unless someone else is writing on one side and her name’s getting slapped on it.

[@GriffinPilgrim]

@@palamedes4740 The military in this series is portrayed as stupid, bloodthirsty, inefficient and tyrannical. If she was buying propaganda that'd be unlikely to be her take.

[@filmandfirearms]

She's probably a full blown dependapotamus. The sort of woman that insists on being called by her husband's rank

[@bj71000]

The selective use of Violet’s EDS symptoms baffle me. There is no way she has the highest agility score amongst, assumably, the most athletic group of the population. Dragons I can accept, super-agile Violet I cannot.

[@MrVeps1]

Yeah, I heard about a fantasy protagonist with EDS and though "Cool, so a really squishy wizard, then?", but nope. The way I understand it, you kind of need your connective tissue in order to handle high-G maneuvers as well as all of the other special forces stuff. I haven't read the book, so I won't weigh in on the quality of the writing, the plot, the military realism in other regards etc, but based on the premise of a dragonrider just "powering through" EDS, I suspect my eyes would roll out of my head and under the couch if I tried reading the series.

[@bj71000]

@@MrVeps1This problem might stem from people believing small = nimble. While sports science is a lot more advanced today vs 40 years ago, a 270 pound man doing consecutive backflips should shatter the idea.

[@NaN-wx9ss]

No because I had the same problem with Violet throughout the first book! I never finished the first book but it made zero sense to me how this girl with only 6 months of training who spent most of her life indoors and EDS was beating people who had trained for their whole freaking lives. There's no way she's more agile than them even if she's petite or whatever and that was one of the things I couldn't stand because the book kept dumbing down other characters to make Violet look good. These supposedly super athletic people aren't actually all that strong and also all of them are idiots because brawn means you can't have brain or speed. Even Violet's intelligence which was supposed to be her special skill felt so forced? Rather than coming across as smart, it felt like the book just had to keep telling me she was smart through other characters while Violet did nothing. I mean has nobody in this murder college except Violet read a book about their country's past??? Yup anyway that's my rant fueled by how most sprinters are bulkier for the obvious power that you need to be that fast and the fact that Violet has too much plot armor.

[@lemnlyme]

“selective” is exactly the right word for it.

[@The_Iowegian]

​@@bj71000O.J. Simpson when he played football was a prime example of size, strength, power and speed.

[@inolienkiki]

A friend of mine is in training to be a naval flight officer… you know, a pretty decent real world analogue of a dragon rider? During the first part of his training, his class was being punished by being made to crawl through a sand pit, and he somehow dislocated his shoulder. The navy absolutely panicked… they gave him surgery to make sure his shoulder never got dislocated again, gave him physical therapy and kept him under watch on base for months, and significantly delayed his progress into flight school until they were absolutely sure no issues would come up. (He’s completely fine by the way.) Stupid murder college is stupid.

[@Avarn388]

@inolienkiki That’s why the murder college stuff should have been removed. It would have solved a majority of the problems. Having Violet being enrolled at the academy because of her military mother( you can even tie her brother’s death and wanting to maintain family legacy) and Violet getting in because of nepotism and having to deal with that would have been an arguably better premise. It’s why I recommend new writers; keep it simple. You’ll be surprised how a simple story can actually be a better one because there’s less plates to spin and maintaining internal consistency is a lot easier.

[@Keram-io8hv]

Murder college is stupid from multiple points just imagine existing in that system "Hi Jerry now I have to work with you, do you remember how you killed Larry?" "Oh yeah good old times let´s go cuddle into tent"

[@feritperliare2890]

​@@Keram-io8hvthe best army is made of backstabbing glory hogs that take unreasonable risks sometimes just to hurt someone who slighted them. No wait that's not an army that's a tragedy in the making that you should remove yourself from before you get caught in the stupidity crossfire

[@donutcat5535]

@@Keram-io8hvactually yeah “oh hi actual murderer let’s go cuddle up in a tent together” that’ll make a great sense of comradery I’m sure

[@Nockgun]

@@inolienkiki yeah its idiotic. the worldbuilding is stupid. I remember I have the special forces of a stratocractic nation using live ammunition in suppression drills. but they were told to lay low or use a ballistic shield

[@OrangeHand]

Pull the string on the KR doll: "But I'm getting ahead of myself!"

[@anth636]

“*anime shoutout”

[@TheHeroOfTomorrow]

Pulls the string again: "Gods, this is stupid!"

[@davidspring4003]

"Whatever...for now."

[@bluemage67]

*pulls string* "Heavy is the head that wears the paper crown."

[@afelias]

Krimson so ahead he celebrating New Year ahead of everyone else. He's in 2028 already

[@JadeReloaded]

I'll never get over the fact that the main relationship conflict is "my rebel bf won't tell me war secrets just because I'm bestie with a mind reader", like girlie, ever heard of plausible deniability?

[@chief72286]

this part of the book makes me nuts it almost ruins it

[@nikokida7878]

An upload from book Jesus right before Christmas, truly a holiday miracle!

[@chelsey8737]

Book Jesus 😂😂😂😂😂

[@williek08472]

​@chelsey8737 I mean he has the right hairstyle 🙃

[@TheTrueKarin]

Book Jesus😂🤣🙏📖

[@kellynantonacci7885]

Cesare Borgia was a very handsome man.

[@RubykonCubes3668]

Off topic(?), his hair grows fast, that's crazy 😆

[@rainylupin]

I told my family about the whole "fantasy SAS training where cadets get to kill each other" thing and they all agree, especially my military buff dad, that the whole concept is unfathmomably stupid. Became even stupider when my brother pointed out that training is supposed to build cameraderie

[@Avarn388]

@rainylupin It’s why keeping things simple would have made the story a lot better. Removing the murder college bit would have done a lot to improve the story.

[@shrouded8797]

I just finished reading Starship Troopers for the first time, and I think it did an excellent job of portraying military training where some casualties occurred.

[@Ashbrash1998]

​@@shrouded8797And even that was straight up military propoganda but it knew what it was talking about.

[@noewil8392]

Like in Terry Pratchett’s Men At Arms when Sgt. Colon reminisces about him and three buddies beating the tar out of their drill sergeant after graduation. Team work makes the dream work 😂

[@Dessarius]

I think "The Witcher" is an apt comparison here. Witcher training is really only taken up by orphans, and even then, rarely is it willing - but the toll the process of transformation takes on the body is highly lethal, so there is never really a large number of Witchers. But, at no point (at least, as per my read of the books and my playthrough of Witcher 3) is there ever any glorification of it. Becoming a Witcher isn't "cool", sure, if you succeed you're stronger than normal humans, you're faster, you have better senses, but you're so incredibly lonely and even amongst other Witchers there will always be some level of rivalry, because Witcher overlap means you won't get jobs. It also (once again, to my terrible recollection) always seems to be viewed as a negative thing in universe. The Witchers basically take on people who would have been dead anyways and give them an opportunity for something different, and the fact that most of them die anyways is... well, they were gonna die anyway. Also, everybody hates Witchers. Wind's howling.

[@mariasolenardelli3745]

As someone with EDS, I am very glad you asked the opinion of people with the disorder for this review. Suffering from EDS, my whole life, but especially in adulthood, and having to change my life around it (constantly taking painkillers, using a wheelchair, getting kicked out of university because my lowered immunosystem caused me to miss too many days, not to count working around the constant fatigue) hearing what EDS was portrayed as in Fourth Wing felt like mocking. And I am very glad you addressed it in this review, and not from an abled person(or at least without EDS)'s point of view, but from people who actually deal with it day in and day out

[@theothermorgan]

I don't have EDS specifically, but Yarros' depiction of "disability" involves every ableist trope I've ever encountered as a disabled person. We should just power through it, we could do anything able people can do if we tried harder. It's an excuse to discriminate against disabled people who can't meet ableist standards.

[@amethystsunsun]

@@theothermorgan After being gaslit and ignored by doctors not talking my symptoms seriously I've had my fair share of internalized ableism that I've started to work though in therapy, and especially helped to research the disorder and start to enter online communities for it. I can see how Yarros could fall back on harmful tropes if she is surrounded by only able-bodied people (and if those able-bodied people treat her illness as invisible and also don't take it seriously) and I still get conflicted about bad representation because at least it is representation of any kind, right? I always wonder how much could have changed if she reached out to these online communities when she was diagnosed not just because she wants a self-insert character in a book to make her MC /special/

[@amaririii_ch]

​​@@theothermorgan Yea, after seeing the comments from people with EDS in the Fourth Wing video, I'm like, "I don't think you can power through _that_ ..."

[@crorinu]

@@theothermorgan I can actually explain why she is seemingly so ableist while having the disability herself. Apparently she grew up Mormon, and so did I. It's the most ableist religion I've ever encountered, while being covert about just how ableist they are. It creeps up and isn't in your face, and so unlearning it is really hard, because you don't realize you've been lied to. The way they treated my autistic sister makes me sick to this day, and I'm so sad she didn't deconstruct with me.

[@TheAdarkerglow]

Yeah, it's a sad reality when we've got to choose between no representation and bad representation. It'd be a lot more moving, more interesting, and more compelling if Violet was forced to rely on others more and couldn't just 'tough it out', but I don't think Yarros is quite good enough in her plotting to set up and pay that off.

[@Pabooney701]

Yarros saw The Rise of the Skywalker and thought they were really cooking with "Somehow, Palpatine has returned" and then wrote Jack back in.

[@GamersHolyArmy]

I was kind of hoping she killed off Jack again and then for the rest of the series make a running gag that Jack just keeps coming back.

[@Jane_Doe-o4r]

@@GamersHolyArmy New running gagged unlocked. In a show I like, the end credits showed that a character had twelve fake-out deaths, and I think about it so often.

[@aricaj.3006]

Honestly I'm partly convinced this series started as yet another (bad) Reylo fanfic that got published. There's a big bad group in power and there's a rebellion. Instead of X-Wings there's dragons. The main character is an underdog with magic powers who becomes super OP by the end of the first book (Rey), ditches her guy friend (Finn), and hooks up with a broody angstman whose only defining character traits are being hot and angry (Kylo). She joins up with the resistance (literally called the Resistance in Star Wars). There is a major plot twist involving her brother (Luke and Leia - yes I know in her case it's that the brother is alive and not "surprise you're related" but still). There is a plot twist in which "somehow x character survived" (Jack). It's Star Wars meets How to Train Your Dragon. Which makes me extremely upset as both an SW fan and an HTTYD fan, because a mashup of both concepts done WELL would've actually been badass. I'm certain there's plenty of good fanfic out there that does mash up the two ideas and writes it far better than Yarros did. Sadly those people will likely never see the success she has although they deserve it more. Yet another W for publishing corporations looking for easy money and an L for the rest of society that just wants good artists to be recognized and to be able to pay their bills

[@beepobeepo]

​@@Jane_Doe-o4r i need the show name

[@Dressup_Doll]

@@beepobeepo_Murder Drones._ It’s here on YT, and it’s about cute little robots who kill each other.

[@ashbelero]

I'm not sure how else to explain this, but sometimes you read a book and it becomes apparent that it was based off the movie trailer the author made in their head while they were washing dishes.

[@ashbelero]

I was extremely high when I wrote this because I forgot the candies were 10mg and not 5mg. I'm sorry.

[@meiimacca4054]

​@@ashbelerono, you're right and you should say it.

[@haunting_bluejay]

@@ashbeleroyes but your high mind was correct, so many of these books read as if the author wrote them as a screenplay rather than a novel

[@ashbelero]

@ no no it’s worse than that because I also used to do this in high school. Like fuck actually writing the book, I was planning the movie trailers and interviews before I’d even written chapter 1. Teenage confidence is a hell of a drug.

[@incognitoburrito6020]

No you're right. A good writer can flesh out their story beyond the trailer in their heads until the whole thing is a completely seamless experience until the audience can't tell what part was the trailer at the beginning. A not-so-good writer can't pull those elements together or connect them, so they make make a story that's more like poorly-connected collection of ideas, vibes, and aesthetics. During covid, my friends and I did dramatic readings of a lot of bad fanfiction. It was pretty obvious when a fanfic was written around a single scene the author had envisioned. Or when they had a vague idea for a fic but no idea what to actually write in it. Same thing with novel writers

[@kaithompson2876]

Regarding the portion of how people with EDS aren't eligible for the military, I saw what could happen first hand with my mother. She most likely has hEDS like I do, but she went into basic training at 18 and dislocated her hip on a normal backpack hike. She didnt slip or fall or anything, she was just walking. She was immediately discharged afterwards. I personally end up partially dislocating my hips just living my life normally. There's no way I could even make it through basic training. . Also thank you Krimson for giving those of us who reached out for the council a shoutout even if we couldn't make it ❤

[@gggthsb]

I do not have a form of EDS but I know people who have it and I was calling bs on the books since the beginning. I am not saying that EDS can not be different in every person, that's one of the biggest hurdles in diagnosing to my knowledge, but for the MC to mention some sort of pain every now and then when it is conveniently not of any consequence for the plot is just stupid. I would have loved if MC actually had to find ways to still do the thing, maybe outsmart people or rely more on her dragon than others to support her or whatever. Something that shows her struggle but she still manages to overcome it and do the hero stuff. That's empowering, that shows that you can still do things even if you are disabled, but the author just made the illness a non issue and patted hersefl on the back for how great she is for daring to write a disabled character. It's like she is mocking the real difficulties that people with EDS have to face everyday and that is even worse when you think about the fact that she has EDS herself.

[@definitelynotashark1799]

​@@gggthsbwhat I can't get over - if the author wanted to write that sort of story, I feel like it maybe would have been fine to choose a different condition and do due diligence. I have a rheumatic condition and as long as I workout several times a week, I don't need any medication. I broke my streak after like 1.5 years and now I'm on a course of immunosuppressants due to it 💀 So there are conditions that you can "push through" and where physical activity at moderate to high intensity is the evidence based conservative approach. But EDS generally isn't one of those conditions. For some people resistance training might help by strengthening some of the tissues surrounding their joints, but I'm an OT in an office full of PTs and most EDS patients come to us/them simply for assistive devices/accomodations and stuff like water physio and psychomotor physio. Not for individual or group based strength/cardio at any level.

[@Ashbrash1998]

​@definitelynotashark1799 I think you make a great point. It's great to have disabled representation, but it doesn't really feel like representation if the disability is barely impacting the character and world because the story is busy without it.

[@kaithompson2876]

@@definitelynotashark1799 You're absolutely correct. I've tried physical therapy that used resistance therapy to target my worst joints in my body, and it certainly helped me, but I still have awful days where I can barely do anything. It is so hard for me to find time fighting through my chronic fatigue and joint pain in order to properly work out and do any kind of cardio or strength training. I do not feel represented by Yarros' story, I honestly feel insulted. EDS and hEDS is not just joint pain, it affects almost everything. It causes GI issues, joint dislocations, chronic fatigue, and if you try and "push through it" it just makes your symptoms even worse until you properly rest. (At least in my case.)

[@mathieuleader8601]

that golden dragon meme in the thumbnail this is a meme that never get's old

[@chipsleftwing]

king ghidora!

[@SirKemzyGodle]

I love that Kevin has become so mainstream

[@allyvollheim3575]

And we all say in unison: "Thank you council!" 🤗 This video brought a whole new level of insight with your input. We appreciate it 🙏🏻

[@filmandfirearms]

The goofy Toothless profile picture was such a funny contrast to Marinka's tone of voice

[@OtakuChristian]

Quite frankly, in a world where the evil government has mind readers that have already taken advantage of Violet once, her demanding to know everything about the rebellion right away and holding past silence against Xaden is utterly stupid and reprehensible.

[@meiimacca4054]

Right?! That it's so heavily harped on is utterly selfish. I wish that she had let information that she was trusted with spill and someone got hurt. That way she'd have a consequence and someone would ACTUALLY dislike her. There's not complexity to these characters or this story.

[@everylaurenislemons]

Please tell me his name isn’t actually spelled like that

[@mckennadevore8692]

@@everylaurenislemons it is, and her nickname is violence 💀

[@VioletRM]

@@everylaurenislemons it is and its shown in the video

[@Viridigitus-y6c]

Thank you so much again for letting us EDS folks boggle along with you about this book! I still cannot get over some of the stuff that goes on in there - Violet is going to be so miserable when she's older and all those antics with her joints catch up to her.

[@quinnzykir]

She isn’t already?!

[@Viridigitus-y6c]

@@quinnzykir considering some of the stuff she gets up to? I can safely say no

[@Snekity_snek]

I think one of the reasons Yarros doesn’t do anything with the interpersonal conflict she sets up is that she’s stated in multiple interviews that she “hates conflict” (for some reason???) which seems antithetical to crafting a compelling long running fantasy story but whatever

[@meiimacca4054]

Plenty of conflict, only it's black and white for her. Either mustache twirling villain or someone who ends up adoring violet. Nuance who?

[@flowerbloom5782]

Nobody likes conflict but man is great for drama and story.

[@emackenzie]

​@@flowerbloom5782 plenty of people like conflict. Even Hallmark movies have conflict, it's the backbone of a _plot_

[@purplehaze2358]

For a while, I couldn't tell why this book was worse than Fourth Wing. And then they brought Jack back from the dead after he was dropped out of the sky and pancaked by a mountain.

[@susanritchie2394]

And Violet is even more annoying and unreasonable.

[@mariaeverette9943]

I was tired of the “Tell me all your secrets” argument and BAM. Jack shows up again and that was when I definitively began to hate the book… because you could just kill him again? Not that hard idk, babes.

[@die_Katze98]

I read the book recently and I was so close. SO SO close to giving up on the book when they reconstituted Jack. If it hadn't been a library copy I'd have probably thrown it. I perservered, but that pissed me off more than a book has pissed me off for a loooong time

[@rowanash5378]

Fellow zebra here. You already had my respect as a reviewer, but your desire to form this EDS council to assist you in discussing the condition as it pertains to this book is just... Wow. You are easily in my top 3 favorite youtubers. Keep up the awesome work.

[@steel8231]

Not gonna lie a Trad Wife in Fantasy World could be an interesting perspective, how does one do the household chorse when their spouse is out adventuring? What do those chores entail and are there any magical appliances? Does the castle need defending? Did the party bard piss off the king again and now someone's gotta play courtly politics? Just saying, might be an interesting Novela. *Edit: this could also apply to a "house husband" but I've been seeing a lot of house husband stories recently and that feels more like throwing a log on an already growing new genre instead of a sideways look at a classic one.

[@elvingearmasterirma7241]

... I sigh and pick up my pencil

[@crowthewicked8344]

That actually sounds very cute.

[@araneljones]

I'd love that. She'd have to be a sorceress, though. Can't milk the cow, cast off armies, beguile a king, AND stay cute without magic.

[@elvingearmasterirma7241]

@@araneljones and she would have to be a proper trad wife and that depends on her social class. A noble rank? Trained in warfare, tactics, politics and how to properly order servants to keep the castle neat and tidy. Peasantry class? M U S C L E S Honestly the best fantasy occupation to have your chosen female lead come from is a washerwoman if you want brute strength

[@Caenef]

Why not? Obviously in a fantasy setting it's possible but I think it'd be more interesting if the protagonist was a mundane, non-magical woman managing all these things.

[@w_renaissance]

This is my first holiday alone after cutting off my abusive family, and this video was just what I needed to keep me company. I can’t wait to see how bad this book gets

[@SilentProti]

Wishing you a good Christmas time!

[@KrimsonRogue]

I'd give you a fist bump if I could. It takes a lot to walk away from abusers, but it's always worth it. Just stay warm, healthy, and have a happy Christmas. I'm rooting for you!

[@toddabowden]

​@@KrimsonRogue You're such a good man. Absolutely a wonderful person 😊

[@mst3kharris]

Happy Liberation Holidays!

[@shadowheartart3898]

Wishing you a Merry Christmas. Good job on taking care of you

[@miritallstag336]

Hey krimsonrogue, i was in Target today, and i saw the third Lightlark book! Time for more unhinged ranting about the worldbuilding and descriptions!

[@TheTrueKarin]

Yeah, please do this, book Jesus 😂

[@spidertoes28]

I think he’s suffered enough 😭

[@Dr.Starbound]

Krimson has never suffered enough! Except for After but that was special! More pain for our Book King!

[@elenabe4718]

Honestly, I'm pretty curious about how Lightlark is going to end. Mostly because I don't have to read it

[@elenabe4718]

Honestly, I'm pretty curious about how Lightlark is going to end. Mostly because I don't have to read it

[@mst3kharris]

Thank you to the EDS council because I’ve listened to other reviews of this book and cannot fathom how she’s able to do half of what she does without severe physical repercussions.

[@user-unfriendly_-o-]

Thank you The EDS Council! I'm someone with hEDS. I've been forced to do karate as a teen and wasn't believed about the amount of pain it caused me. It's really important to spread the idea that being unable to do something is okay and people should never be pushed to their absolute limits just because for you their limit is easy to reach. Some of us need accomodations, community and more time to do everything, and we should be empathetic instead of dismissing other's and our own needs. Thank you for bringing a lot of focus to this particular part of the author's mistakes, I appreciate it a lot.

[@callmekodiak]

Only 6 hours!? Is this even a Krimson review?

[@SpiderJack99]

He’s going back to his roots

[@BudewFan_]

Must’ve accidentally uploaded it to his main when it was meant for the short rants channel

[@GrifoStelle]

Ah leave obligatory likes if you too checked the run time on the video when you read that comment 😂 I was at 1:36:00

[@LetruneInedil]

He is experimenting with short video formats. :3

[@studmuffin-o5i]

You sound ungrateful undermining all the work he’s done.

[@Saburi0504]

Petition for ‘Standard Issue Shadow Daddy’ to become an official trope

[@amandapanda5087]

Signed

[@MC-lm7de]

Bonus: you can read it to the TMNT theme

[@MetaFanWing]

⁠@@MC-lm7de “Standard Issue Shadow Daddy “Standard Issue Shadow Daddy “Written with two brain cells “Goofy jerkwad”

[@HolyAlondite]

It's a shame because shadows are probably tied for my favorite element. Yet 99% of the time, they used for generic broody bad boy character that's almost always painfully uninteresting

[@DebWrites]

I like Don't Fret's "Edgy Shadow Boo".

[@leopoldakaleopoldalsoknown5050]

I have a very important public anouncement to be made; after just coming home completely shitfaced from drinking with one of my best friends, thinking of my beautiful girlfriend, about to cook something amazing for my drunk ass, I am discovering with UTTER delight that Crimson uploaded a 6 hour long video ripping into this abomination. The announcement is: LIFE IS GOOD

[@KrimsonRogue]

Now you just gotta make NACHOS!

[@leopoldakaleopoldalsoknown5050]

Funfact: I actually had Chili sin carne with Nachos, before reading your comment. It just continues to be the perfect evening

[@glitchygutz]

1:21:22 the idea of putting this little fun fact in as flavour text before a chapter is so hilarious to me. it's like when games give you a bunch of ammo and healing items before a suspiciously open area. gee, i wonder why i'm being given this information!

[@Borealis109]

Couldn't possibly be because I'm going to need that very very soon

[@penginlord9396]

My dad runs ultra marathons, in fact he does several a year. But they're brutal, and they're called endurance races for a reason. The point isn't to score first, it's to cross the finish line at all. And he's constantly training for it, running in mountains nearly every weekend to keep in shape. So massive props to the lady with EDS who's training to run one.

[@MariaRodriguez-dx6sm]

It seems to me Yarros tried to pull an Attack on Titan and have a high mortality rate of her secondary and tertiary character that would affect the reader... but unlike Isayama, she never took the time to let us know them, with their fears and dreams, that actually let us to get attached to them.

[@viking-astronaut]

And AoT doesn't kill off trainees for no good reason in basic training. When trainees die, it's because they are suddenly attacked or a disaster occurs, not because their instructors are "testing" them.

[@Avarn388]

@@viking-astronaut Yeah. While I do have issues with AOT overall, that’s the one thing he did very well which was have believable events that got the trainees dead. And why this murder college thing is so stupid.

[@myXusername]

There is a defined rule that I've noticed in this that if a side character you've just met opens up with a monologue about their dreams and aspirations, they're dead within the same chapter.

[@a.m1k]

@@Avarn388im a big fan of aot (granted i did watch it like 4 years ago so it might not be as good as i remember) so im just curious what problems you found? although if its the ending i will def agree lmao that was ass

[@astro-cerinth]

For some reason, hearing you talk about a bad book always inspires me to work on my own writing. Took a break from the video and wrote 1800 words in the script for my comic before coming back to finish watching. Thanks! Also thank you EDS Council ❤

[@GamersHolyArmy]

@@astro-cerinth It certainly does help with impostor syndrome, because if this can be published I can do it too!

[@SoRePeSi]

Same! I've been slumped for months with my next scenes, watched fifteen minutes of this and got the urge to open my files again and write.

[@ChariotLee]

When krimson starts a video with his head in his hands you know it’s going to be a good review.

[@coeval5568]

I have soooooo many problems with these books as a chronically ill, military-raised dragon girl lmao The only thing about the military that Yarros really gets right is the entrenched idea that “pain is weakness leaving the body” and I feel so bad for her that she’s stuck in that thinking.

[@etherealvaleska4483]

I relate so heavily to being a "chronically ill, military-raised dragon [boy]" lmaooo. And yeah, that mindset has wreaked havoc on so many people. I've never been in the military myself, but I was raised thinking that way and I still sometimes struggle to break out of that mindset. I don't even know how many times I've gotten sports injuries because I ignored my body's extremely obvious signs that I needed to stop or slow down. Your knee hurts after a run? Go for another run to loosen it up! It's crazy how damaging that mentality can be.

[@alexwyatt2911]

@@etherealvaleska4483 Tangentially, there’s a weird trend among parents who are nurses or doctors. Many people have shared how their diseases/broken bones went untreated when they were kids because their parents, who were medical professionals, basically told their kids to walk it off. Seemingly, they were used to patients believing their affliction was more serious than it was? I’m speculating, of course. And, obviously, it’s not every nurse/doctor that does that to their kids (or patients). I’ve just been surprised how common that experience is.

[@nachgeben]

@@etherealvaleska4483 It's because it comes from people who don't actually get it. Even if they've had extreme injuries, they don't understand *chronic* issues. The worst for me is that the people in my life keep shoving natural things at me, which I can't afford because natural stuff that DOES work is far too expensive for someone who can't work that much, and then accuse me of being a drug addict and doctor-needy, because I have a pain management doctor I see once every three months, and that's the extent of what I can afford right now. (For context, I have hEDS, so BASICALLY the same thing the protag is supposed to have.)

[@axelvoss9653]

Jack being *brought back from the dead* just chapters away from Violet's big speech about the callous and uncaring Murder College is the funniest thing imaginable.

[@krazy9877]

42:52 Why don't the dragons turn their tails into hands with opposable thumbs to weave runes? Then they don't need the riders!

[@CatCheshire]

Oh, good one XD That would look horrifying though... XD

[@haleyboulton1491]

That or learn how to write runes with their tails? Or teach feathertails which runes to write? Do the runes only work at a certain size? Why wouldn't they?

[@hehevalerie]

the fact that yarros doesn't utilize violet's disorder in (professorial voice) coitus is INSANE to me. imagine the emotional tenderness of them having to stop to pop her leg back in.....the yearning, the potential, the EASY tropified hurt/comfort.......WASTED. maybe she's saving it for a later book, and frankly if she is its stupid and i hate it even more. you don't get to turn your disorder off and on when its convenient for the plot. i'm just a regular 30-something and sometimes my leg hurts too much to do positions. the politics are dumb as hell and the school runs on more infuriating logic than hogwarts, but the the spite i feel over the simple stupidity of the wasted potential of easy romance tropes is really what gets me, because you can't romantasy handwave that away-that's what we're HERE for.

[@blah914]

I thought of that as well, and I have a thought..... it's probably because she doesn't want to. Yarrow has the same condition as Violet, so writing something that would (possibly? probabl?) be so intimate to her might have been a bit too much for her. which I understand. totally agree that it's a missed oportunity tho...

[@minale3604]

My guess is that the s*x is written that way because in romantasy, a lot of s*x scenes can be somewhat rough and Yarros wanted to follow that trend even though it didn't make sense for her book

[@Megafreakx3]

Not to compare to another author, but Brandon Sanderson is the best example when it comes to writing disorder (mental or physical), the dude talking to an expert (or doing research) and heading on the head each and every time.

[@cursedcontent4207]

The plot holes in this thing as it's being constructed are a part of the reason I'm writing my entire trilogy at once.

[@Solarstormflare]

this is a fantastic idea and i wish traditional publishing allowed for this more

[@Evarakeus]

GRRM could've learned from this

[@katherine6326]

Even if it isn't possible to do all the books at once, a writer should always AT LEAST have an outline before starting a series.

[@dokchampa9324]

It's really admirable that not only did you bring on someone with actual EDS to help review this book, you actually got several people for it! Not everyone's experience with an illness is going to be the same, so having multiple perspectives is always very helpful.

[@JeanetHenning]

Two things that bother me about the Andarna thing. 1. It would have been so much more interesting if she and Violet had a Hickup-Toothless dynamic where they only had each other and because both had special needs they needed to work together. Take away Terren and we couldve had Andarna not be ridable but be used by Violet as a spotter during battle so she wouldnt have to carry Violet but Violet could use her as eagle eyes to strike lightning down upon the enemies from a distance. 2. I thought no one saw baby dragons so how would Brenen have enough experience with dragons to remark about excelerated growth.

[@Megafreakx3]

Don't remind me of better actually reputation when it comes to disabilitie dragon riders

[@chartate1017]

I know this is stupid but today has really sucked and seeing this in my subscription box has made it better. I probably won’t be able to watch it until tomorrow but I’m so excited

[@KrimsonRogue]

Tomorrow will be a better day.

[@chartate1017]

Thanks. It ended up being so! I moved for the first time in my life and it was all a mess but now stuff’ started to quiet down

[@KrimsonRogue]

Good, I'm glad to hear it!

[@Zivillyn]

That member of the EDS council who says that Violet comes across as someone who has only just found out about her diagnosis... when she says that, the pain in her voice breaks my heart.

[@mowpsu938]

someone needs to talk about how this story is BEAT FOR BEAT every bad x reader fanfic I used to read when I was 12. Two dragons? One of them is Special? The superpower that is also Special? Gratuitous murder and other such nonsensical stakes? Protagonist who is disadvantaged in some token way to make her more endearing but isn't actually treated as a flaw? A scene of literal days long biology-defying torture only to get rescued by some guy? Please, does Young Adult mean 12 these days? If you're old enough to read the adult scenes you are certainly old enough to expect more mature handling of plot and characterisation from the author!

[@h2o2630]

I swear to god all these booktok authors never had a fanfic phase and it really fucking shows. I can find better quality work on A03 right now…

[@incognitoburrito6020]

​​@@h2o2630 I think the problem is actually that they _only_ had a fanfic phase, and didn't read enough actual books. Fanfic isn't inferior to books or anything, but it is _different._ There are different genre standards, there's a different set of expectations. If all you read and write is fic, you're probably not going to write a good novel. Fortunately for booktok authors, most of the booktok audience _also_ reads primarily fanfic, so that works for them. Unfortunately for everyone else, it stands out bad

[@eiriankt]

I was ranting to my fandoms bestie all throughout watching the Fourth Wing review, "This could be a Harry potter post-war au." "this author throws in world building like she's expanding on an existing system." "it sounds like she writes under the 'eventual smut' tag." it got kind of ridiculous. And I am both a fanfic reader *and* author, with exacting reading standards, so that's not a complaint/slight against fanfic. It's just weird.

[@flowerbloom5782]

Man I want to read a story that handles both fantasy and romance well. You can have both!

[@RoseRamblesYT]

My information is purely coming from in depth reviews that I've watched of both books, so keep that in mind. The discussion around Violet wanting 100% honesty and Xaden saying he'll earn her trust. While it's not necessarily wrong of Violet to want 100% honesty from Xaden, one issue is that Xaden is a leader in a rebellion, and thus the safety of other people are on the line. In Fourth Wing, Violet's best friend, whose name I'm blanking on, can read minds (by touch). Thus, if Xaden discloses information, too much information, about the rebellion to Violet, well her best friend can learn this information and shit can hit the fan. And didn't the friend do exactly that? He learned information which causes problems for Xaden and Violet? Part of my point is that Xaden was not wrong to prioritize the safety of the rebellion - and the safety of those in it - over Violet who was not in any danger, if you follow me. In addition, just generally speaking, no one is entitled to 100% of a person. People are allowed to keep some things, especially if no harm will come to another person, to themselves, you know? People are allowed to keep secrets. So, while Violet can ask for 100% honesty, 'cause that's a good expectation to lay down, Xaden is not a bad person IF he chooses to not be 100% honest about everything all the time. Again, because unless there is some information that will affect Violet personally, she doesn't need to know everything. As well, if I remember correctly from the reviews, Violet kept asking for honesty, but not even about Xaden himself and who he is as a person, but rather she kept demanding he be 100% honest about the rebellion, which there was definitely a time period where she did not need to know about it, if that makes sense. Relevant to this, I would have been irritated with Violet because I believe she essentially gave Xaden an ultimatum in Fourth Wing, which was he either be 100% honest with her (about the rebellion), or they'll break up. If this was the case, I find that unfair and rather selfish of Violet. Idk, from all the reviews I've watched about these books, Violet seems like a selfish character anyway, despite the fact I'm sure that's not what the author intended, but alas.

[@mariaeverette9943]

I would even go so far to say the Xaden is also kinda dumb in this book. His whole rhetoric of “just ask me” never made sense to me, because he knows what he can and cannot tell her. She wont magically know questions to ask about things she doesn’t know? I agree with everything you said, I just wanted to point out that neither of them were very smart in this book.

[@mellowmarshyxiv5964]

I agree. Violet setting boundaries is for her not the other person. If she is not comfortable being with a person who can't be 100% honest, she should break up and find someone that aligns more with her. Also Xaden had a very good reason to withhold information. But even if he didn't it's not up to him to change because of her boundary. She makes the choice of who she will date because of her boundaries.

[@RoseRamblesYT]

@@mellowmarshyxiv5964 Exactly. I think some people misunderstand what boundaries even are, and you explained it well here. You can set your own boundaries, and if someone doesn't meet them or crosses them it's up to You to leave that person or whatever it is.

[@hedgers2005]

I think the way I think about this is I can be 100% honest but that doesn't mean I've disclosed 100% of the information.

[@madimiss]

Not to mention she gave up his secrets to her friends not even two chapter later in the story because they asked her nicely! Of course she shouldn’t be trusted!

[@katerinamanzhur4462]

how good would these books have been if the point was that in this brutal society that hates weakness and friendship, violets strenght would have come from her needing close friends and allies around her because of her disability and she kinda changes the culture that works against comradery in the wing by killing everyone. we could habe had fluffy scenes where they sit arounf a campfire, or visit each other in their rooms to strategize the next day and the side characters would have been relevant idk. viole could be that academic mafia boss, trading favors for help with homework or smth

[@SozIDontTHaveAName]

Among other military school books, the first that comes to mind is Robin Hobbs 'Soldier Son' trilogy where the titular son is sent to military school and discovers that different people have different strengths and getting a nerd friend in a jock school to help you study the things that the drill sergeant refuses to elaborate can be quite helpful in the long run.

[@maryanntheconqueror]

3:50 The second you started saying this I began chanting "Dashcon, Dashcon, Dashcon!"

[@WhiteWolf-lm7gj]

And we're gonna have Dashcon 2: Electric Boogaloo

[@zerozeroren]

Wouldn't a 12-hour hike up a difficult terrain absolutely wreck even an able-bodied person?

[@alisaurus4224]

Especially if it was just sprung on them & they didn’t get to train or bring supplies

[@cursedcontent4207]

I forget if I ever mentioned this but another notable worldbuildy thing: Remember the thing about dragon names, how only the rider knows the dragon's full name and they use a short version otherwise. Tairneanach means "thunder" and its shortened form is "Tairn", which (to my knowledge) means nothing. By this logic, it should imply that all dragons' full names have a meaning (probably related to the signet they impart) while the nicknames shouldn't mean anything. I like name translations like this so I looked it up on their wiki and naturally, Yarros fumbles worldbuilding, take a shot. Sgaeyl, Feirge, Aimsir, etc, are all short names and by the logic of the worldbuilding, *should* be parts of larger words. But they aren't. Sgaeyl = Shadow, Feirge = Of Anger, Aimsir = Weather. What this tells me is that Yarros did not intend to reveal these dragons' full names when she made them. If she does, this adds another snag in the worldbuilding which makes me wonder if dragons with multiple words in their name are seen as different, if single-word dragons are somehow more powerful (Thunder), and if the reason people don't reveal dragons' full names to other people is because their names translate into words that give away their powers, in which case Sgaeyl, and Aimsir certainly are already exposed. I need to get back to writing. Send help. I'm dying inside.

[@SozIDontTHaveAName]

I feel like i have more in depth Excell sheets about my roleplaying characters in games where it doesnt matter to anyone but me than Yarros had for any character in the entire book.

[@karienlauster9809]

So I mentioned that I read Fourth Wing because of your review, and then Iron Flame to confirm a theory I had about the murder college. Theory one was that not all the "deaths" were real--particularly those who fell off the parapet. Basically going by the logic of "If I don't see the body, they aren't really dead." This has yet to be disproved, and holds some merit when you consider Brennan and Jack. It even makes sense when you add in that they burn the bodies. Very easy to just switch out another dead body. Again, see Brennan as how this can work. My second theory was that they were killing off the cadets to power the wards. I sort of wish I was right about this, because at least then the murder college would make sense and serve a purpose in the world-building and plot. Sadly, it just looks dumb, especially when they encounter griffon fliers, who tell them that the murder college concept is stupid. (TL;DR they have this initiation where they jump off a ledge or something to get on their griffons. When Violet hears this she asks about the dead, and the fliers basically go "Nobody dies, that would be stupid.") PS: Thank you for gathering the EDS Council. I love that you went that extra mile to have Own Voices lending their experiences and thoughts to the portrayal of Violet's condition.

[@songweretson]

1:04:22 "Take a shot every time I say that." No, thank you. I don't want to die.

[@shittyname2657]

Finally a short video to enjoy.

[@SozIDontTHaveAName]

now i can finally start eating my dinner

[@strigiformthunderstorm]

EDS patient here, great review and love that you devoted so much time to exploring her portrayal of disability! I really worry about pop culture depictions that have characters just pushing through. So much of what we have to survive isn't just the illness but the culture of ableism (especially in healthcare.)

[@davidspring4003]

You know...every time you mention a bit of lore about the bond between Dragon and Rider in this series...I can't help but think about the premiere novel of someone who was, at the time, 16. Eragon. It's...implied by Brom (who had reason to hide how much he knew at the time, and was later debunked) that if a Rider dies, so does their Dragon, but it's established from a lot of backstory that if a Dragon dies, their Rider can usually go on, though a part of them is lost forever to the point they often choose not to. There is also a drug established about 50% through the book that suppresses magic and telepathy that's administered through food and drink. You know who uses it? The villains to make sure Eragon can't contact Saphira and that Arya can't just bust out of her chains and escape. I assume it's also often used by the Varden on enemy spellcasters (Should they ever lay hand on them while they're alive), but it's implied that the drug is rare enough for the Empire to have (almost) total control of it, so its absence in the Varden isn't necessarily suspect, yet is also old enough to be known enough for it to be am actual military tactic Like...if a 16-year-old newbie author can cover these issues, why can't an experienced adult author?

[@flowerbloom5782]

Wow i didn’t know eragon was written by a 16 year old

[@davidspring4003]

@flowerbloom5782 yup. And while Paolini will never be THE BEST author of all time, he's my personal favorite and a damned sight better than a lot of his contemporaries.

[@Nockgun]

as a someone who wrote more military centric worlds (to be fair they are more of a WW1-cold war type era worlds.) You need to really research every single thing

[@davidspring4003]

@Nockgun exactly! I mean, fantasy world, you can make up your own rules, but you can't say "I was worried about being court martialed for this minor infraction, but this other guy loudly and publicly sabotaged our new recruits and didn't even get a slap on the wrist!"

[@Nockgun]

@@davidspring4003 I have stuff like Deer people (Known as Cervans) have to saw their antlers for a helmet or remove their tines for a more newer one. and for more other world. It never involves killing recruits. because you can kill off many hidden potentials. that can become a war hero for your nation.

[@mialia-u7v]

3:12:47 Krim, with all due respect this was the worst declaration of love that I have ever heard in my life. Maybe this would swoon a 12yol in their main character phase but not the grown ass adults this book aims to reach. It's a good thing his people were out of ear-shot cause If I'd heard my leader say he would rather sacrifice me and my family (and all the other people from Aretia) for this random ass girl he only met half a year ago and who he only likes to have sex with (and then argue over basic bullshit, throughout THE ENTIRE GODDAMN BOOK) Then may God have mercy over his dump-ass soul Cause I won't

[@zenithquazar]

Right? It completely ruins his chatacter. He's supposedly this revolutionary leader, taking care of all the children of his generation, fighting to give the people who have been excluded from the safety of wards a chance. After that declaration He's just a guy with a new obsession to replace an old one. You can't trust him

[@mialia-u7v]

​@zenithquazar Absolutely, And I don't wanna sound to cynical but whenever I encounter a dude like that in romantasy, a "rebellion leader" it seems to me that it's just there to make him look hotter and the actual revolution is just an afterthought. He is only responsible for so many people and the fate of his entire country so that he can say shit like "you are worth more than a kingdom" No man she really isn't

[@flowerbloom5782]

I think this book is for adults who are entering or still in their main character phase.

[@NickLinz-ig2rq]

No fucking way. I literally just finished your video on 4th Wing yesterday! What a nice turn of events, cheers for that

[@KrimsonRogue]

Good timing! lol

[@filmandfirearms]

If Yarros had chosen a more historically accurate explanation for why Violet was sent to the Rider's quadrant, it would've made so much more sense. Until after WW1, the sons of noble families were virtually required to serve, no matter what physical ailments they may have suffered from. There was Danish Jarl known as Ivar the Boneless. It's not quite clear exactly what condition he had or how bad it was, since we are dealing with centuries of overlapping embellishment and propaganda in all directions, but you don't end up with a nickname like that without good reason. He still led his men into battle, and was apparently quite a good leader. The idea was that you couldn't expect your people to die for their country unless you were willing to do the same, and quite a few kings did just that. King Harald Godwineson of England, King Gustav Adolph of Sweden, King Karl XII of Sweden, though it's entirely possible he was killed by friendly fire. Many more were wounded in battle and survived. In such a culture, someone like Violet, the daughter of apparently one of the greatest military leaders their nation has ever known, would be expected to fight, no matter what conditions she may have had. Again, you can't expect your people to die for their country unless you are willing to die with them. A direct comparison to Violet, Prince Alexei of Russia, son of Tsar Nikolai II. Despite it being well known that he suffered from hemophilia, he was still being groomed as a military leader. After all, he was the heir apparent, so he had to be ready to fight for his country. Even today, most men of the few royal families remaining in Europe have served in their respective militaries. Prince Harry of England even saw some light combat in Afghanistan. Say what you will about the man, that's more national service than most MPs have done

[@timo8516]

I think the other alternative is something like Adrian Tchaikovsky's Guns of the Dawn (set in a sort of Napoleon-esque era) where the whole premise is that the country is so desperate for soldiers that they are forced to conscript women to fight.

[@missxfaith]

The *best* Christmas present 😌 (I wasted 28 hours of my life listening to the audiobook for this and I deserve some kind of compensation for my time)

[@xiexielian]

@@missxfaith u're brave my lady, did u pay for the audiobook?

[@missxfaith]

@ lol no I borrowed it from my library

[@xiexielian]

@@missxfaith hahaha good, yeah now u need some detox haha

[@lzrshark617]

@@xiexielian In the vein of the old joke 'your body can only process one source of pain at a time, so if you just stubbed your toe, slam your hand in a door to not feel your toe anymore', may I recommend marathoning Krim's entire Empress Theresa review to truly melt your brain into a puddle?

[@xiexielian]

@@lzrshark617 empress theresa, the classic 🙌🏻

[@waifwrath]

The way you break down writing and storytelling techniques during this review is really helpful for would-be writers. I love that you take the time to explain how certain elements could've been done better

[@endfall]

A problem throughout these two books is that it feels like Violet is only disabled when it's convenient for the plot and I personally kinda hate that.

[@VioletRM]

a 6 hour video about a series of books i dont care about? my favorite! thank you Mr. Rogue

[@Alina-mb8fl]

As someone with the hEDS-adjacent diagnosis of HSD, thank you for including the voices of people suffering from this awful disease. I've heard people saying that this portrayal of hEDS is just wish fulfilment, but imo it's really condescending to not portray the difficulties accurately. It's like the book is telling me that I'm simply "not trying hard enough, because if you were, you'd succeed just like Violet"

[@dimsunstuff]

Honestly this series should have been written from the dragons' perspective. It would be so much funnier to watch Violet and Xaden bumble about their relationship from their dragons' POV and arguably it would make the stakes more interesting

[@SozIDontTHaveAName]

even more fun if it was an ancient dragon who has to suffer the seventeenth time a new rider stumbles through their teens. And no ability to actually just tell them in words. Just lots of emotional eye-rolls and huffs of smoke

[@rainybearstudio]

Ahhhh I've been so excited for this upload! Thank you for sharing my artwork!

[@KrimsonRogue]

Thanks for making it! It fits really well as the pfp for my second channel.

[@SakkaraKirax]

My experience of EDS is very different from most of the panel and from Violet, so it was difficult to accept her physical abilities at all, though I know it is a wildly variable condition, even within the same type. I recognise that I am at the severe end of the scale and was diagnosed a lot earlier than most people are because of that. I have been mostly bed-bound for the past couple of years, from my late 40s, after having many thousands of dislocations in my life in the majority of my joints, leaving my body trashed. My life has been one of acceptance, accommodation, and adaptation. My joints are so unstable that sometimes i will sit up in the morning and my shoulder will dislocate from the weight of my arm. My left shoulder was fused when I was 14 because it would just dangle out of the socket for weeks or months, often going numb. This was after 3 previous surgeries of different types didn't work, as fusion is a last resort because it takes away all movement in the shoulder. I've had a total of 8 shoulder surgeries, 4 on each. I used a knee brace for many years because I couldn't take more than a couple of steps without it dislocating. I regularly dislocate my wrists doing simple things like holding my phone. We changed all the taps in the house to levers because I was dislocating my fingers trying to turn knobs. It goes on and on like that. I fall down a lot, because balancing on such unstable joints is difficult. I liken it to building a brick wall, but using jello instead of mortar, then trying to keep the wall standing. I have always bruised easily, but as I've gotten older my skin has gotten very fragile so I almost always have open wounds on me that take ages to heal. I had stitches from a biopsy once and within two days I had lost those stitches because my skin had dissolved around them, leaving a bigger wound than I had started with. The tape they used took my skin off with it, so I had another two sores to deal with. My body is covered in scars. I've had problems with my bladder and digestive issues, as well as my heart. I've had menstrual issues, never having had a regular cycle and intensely heavy bleeding and cramps my whole life, which is extremely common in women with EDS. I've had migraines since I was 7. I say all of this to demonstrate that Ehlers Danlos Syndrome isn't just about having some wobbly joints and chronic pain. Even if those two particular symptoms are minimal for a person, there are likely a whole host of other issues they are dealing with day to day. I've had chronic pain since I was in my early 20s, which has become more severe as time passes. I have days where I can't think or focus past the pain. Some of those days are spent alternating between distractions and sobbing. Finding ways to distract myself from the pain has become more difficult over time, as my body and hands are no longer able to do a lot of the things I love, or cannot do them for long. I experience a mixture of acute pain (from dislocations, subluxations, muscle spasms, etc) and a constant underlying pain that hasn't given me even one day off in the past couple of decades. I laughed aloud at the part where Violet says she is sure she can handle torture because of the pain she lives with every day. If her pain was bad enough that she thought it would make torture a cakewalk, then she would be nowhere near as functional as she is. It is impossible to hide that level of pain for long and it would be obvious to the people around her, no matter how good she is at masking. One of the EDS panel mentioned Violet's refusal to accept help or accommodation. Another said that Violet acted as though she'd only recently begun to experience the condition, having no concept of how to actually manage the symptoms and limitations of her disability. These things seems to be played off in the book as a gritty self-reliance, a real strength in her character. However, her character could have been so much more powerful (and accurate) if Violet had put real thought into the sort of accomodation and adaptation she could put in place for herself in order to live up to her full potential. She is so adamant about not accepting help and not acknowledging when she can't do things the way others can that it makes her just seem childishly stubborn in a self-destructive way. Deciding to push on with a 12 hour mountain hike is a ridiculously stupid choice, as she seems to recognise that her body is not capable of it. You can't just decide your way past your disability or choose not to be in too much pain to carry on, or refuse to have your ankle dislocate because it would be inconvenient. Violet seems to think she can conquer her disability through willpower, instead of acknowledging it and learning to cope in ways that leave her the least disadvantaged. That would make her a much more interesting disabled character to me. I still have an hour and a half of the video left to watch, though, so maybe Violet has figured out her own acceptance, accommodation, and adaptation by the end.

[@amara560]

Big hugs from an internet stranger if you can use them 🫂 I am also bedbound (albeit with different diseases and symptoms), and I understand how completely isolating it can be. I wish you an easier day❤

[@fromvault801]

Honestly to help with the boredom I felt as KR read passages, I recommend pretending all dragons are dronkeys from Shrek. It really works. My fave part was the Dronkey hatching ground and the possibility 1 may have a fin shaped tail.

[@ZeoHidra]

My theory is that this takes place in a grittier 80s/90s merchandise-based cartoon and the dragon riders are the bad guys ("uniform" must include black, Varis is put in charge of the school, murduring grunts and trainees is overlooked) while the griffin riders are the good guys. 4:11:45 supports this theory.

[@Pandachu123]

Headcanon accepted. 🤣

[@jasrianna]

Too kind is an understatement. It's a travesty that there are so many talented authors out there struggling to get published and *this* is what makes it. It has some of the worst dialogue I've ever heard, with most characters speaking like they're straight from a contemporary soap opera, and the villains making pantomime look understated. Twirl your moustache a little harder, why don't you? But the series' biggest crime is being just plain dull, painfully boring and so unimaginative it may as well have been written by AI. There's no effort put into anything. Need to find some crucial information? Just look it up in a book, or find a convenient journal. New character introduced? Go through the same cycle of killing them when no-one remembers who they are, rinse and repeat. And what's worse is including EDS as a cynical box-ticking exercise while not bothering to include any significant aspects of the condition and how they might impede the main character. If anything, living with chronic pain might make you less likely to endure acute pain well (purely anecdotal, but I doubt I'm the only one who experiences this) because you're so exhausted and worn down by constantly battling the former that the latter is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Bad representation is worse than no representation, and some of the egregious omissions in these books could be actively harmful in terms of society's perception of what it's like to live with EDS. I genuinely don't understand how anyone can enjoy these books, ironically or otherwise. If you want badly written fantasy smut, there's plenty of fanfic out there. And it's free! Stop giving hack writers your hard-earned money. The only reason I can think of for gravitating towards Sarah J. Mass derivative rip-offs like this is wanting to avoid the stigma of indulging in aforementioned fanfic and post these unecessarily chunky books on Instagram or Tiktok to seem smart. Look at me Ma, I'm ReADiNg. I can read good. You'd be better off staring at a blank wall in silence for however many hours you wasted on this trash - I felt like I lost IQ points just being exposed to the extracts in this review. I mean, if Mass is your starting point then it's already a lost cause, but I digress. This is the only time I've had to stop mid-review because the book's success was making me legitimately angry. I can't even laugh at it like Lightlark. The infection that is 'Romantasy' is a plague upon the fantasy genre and I hope it runs out of victims sooner rather than later.

[@Solarstormflare]

yeah, romantasy could be great in theory but i havent found one i actually liked yet. Curious why it's only popped off in fantasy though, where is the love for romanscifi?

[@TheMightyAerodrakon]

Very terrified of even wondering if I can get my book published when I have to compete with utter sh*t like this

[@haunting_bluejay]

@@Solarstormflareexactly, I’m a big fan of both romance and fantasy, and the two work well in theory but every mainstream romantasy I’ve come across is so poorly written, with half-baked and ill thought out world building that’s solely there for vapid and vain romances that are all the same “smol tiny uwu girl with her big scary shadow daddy bf” like I’ve had enough. I’m begging authors to actually try and be creative.

[@atlas956]

@@haunting_bluejay exactly. Romance and fantasy, like ALL literature, depend on the author’s writing ability to be good. I feel like this whole romantasy boom is people who want to be internet famous and make money, so the reproduce stuff they know sells (instead of just writing fanfic online like they probably should). I feel like some authors just throw in the romance and explicit content and some tropes because they can’t think of a plot. In some of these novels, it’s just painfully obvious that the author has never written nor read much before, so they just throw every idea they have into the manuscript and hope it sounds creative and suspenseful. I’m 20 and at this point I avoid every single book recommendation from someone I don’t know well. recent-ish YA, romance and fantasy (unfortunately especially female protagonists) are so flooded with super low effort writing and unflagged explicit scenes, abusive romances and uninspired tropes… at this point I just avoid the genres unless i can find a detailed summary and some actual discussion online. Takes out a lot of the fun, but there’s so many awful books with shining vague reviews out there, I’m just sick of disappointment.

[@elizabethashley42]

​@@Solarstormflare Alessa Thorn is the one romantasy author I like. I fully do not understand the success of the likes of Mass and Yarrow.

[@CarsonDobson]

3:22:18 I thought wow this wasn’t that bad the writer has talent she just needs proofreaders but then I looked at how much time was left 💀

[@avabellaa]

My book club and i constantly say "Yarros is pulling from her random jar of names again" when someone dies and we're supposed to care. All of us are like "who the fuck was that supposed to be?"

[@robinronin]

1:29:28 I thought that Violet was getting trapped in the pantry at unalive college on the reg and was SO CONFUSED 😂

[@SaintAbsol]

I’m only about an hour and fifteen minutes into this review, but I really need to get this off my chest. The entire time listening to the first review, I kept thinking that the author left herself so many easy outs to all the problems with the story. These books feel like a first draft of a story with some level of potential; maybe not some genre redefining masterpiece, but a good enough story that would still be worth reading. It seems like what Yarros needs is someone who can sit her down and say ‘Look; this is a good starting point, but let’s try again. You’ve almost got it, and I think you can go all the way, but not with this.’ Edit: So, after finally finishing the review, I’m now 100% convinced I hit the nail on the head. This story has to be a first draft that went directly into print; there are so many things an editor could have and frankly should have pointed out to fix.

[@dragonranger8456]

Not even an hour into this, and all the logistical errors would make Robute Guilliman shed a tear.

[@shadowjack239]

The Codex Astartes does NOT support this action...

[@dolos4301]

He'd have written a treatise on the travesties committed by this series by now

[@Jean-Luc_Renard]

I'm having the worst holiday season of my life, but now it's not a complete loss. Thank you.

[@KrimsonRogue]

I hope everything gets better for you!

[@TiredGardener470]

I hate how Yarros keeps trying to tell us Violet is smart but Violet throws tantrums throughout the book demanding information. Dane's a touch telepath. All he has to do is brush by her in a hallway and all of their plans are exposed. Then, there are all of the times Violet tells us information only to act like it's brand new information she's never heard 3 or 4 pages later. I can't tell if Yarros was going back and forth between first and third person without realizing or if Violet is really just that much of a moron.

[@g0j1ra_1]

can't wait for the 8 hour ONYX STORM review

[@xiexielian]

Best Christmas gift ever, thank u Sir.

[@holytramp3976]

Crimson talks about worst convensions Me: "is he gonna mention dashcon? yea, he's gonna mention dashcon"

[@user-nl8yp9ln7h]

As an irish person I feel obligated to say; it’s pronounced ee-fah (aoife). Your attempt made me laugh very hard.

[@RainWelsh]

As a Welsh person with an Irish best mate who’s drilled proper pronunciation into me, I was also tickled by his pronouncing Ciaran as “see-are-un”. My Irish mate is called Ciara, for added hilarity.

[@Topboxicle]

I immediately knew Solas and his rider were going to be bad guys, because Dragon Age uses similar Gaelic folklore inspiration for dalish elves , egg head ends up being a soulless bastard in every timeline.

[@storytellerbyfire3279]

3:13:46 I got a good laugh when he pronounced 'live' as 'leave.' XD So it read; "I will happily watch Aretia burn to the fucking ground again if it means you LEAVE!" lol

[@thetweefirebug]

Would've been a stupid, but hilarious twist. A misty-eyed Violet thinks for just a second that he said 'live', and then the smile slowly fades as realisation hits. "Wait, what-" "You heard me, get the fuck out! I've got stuff to do here!"

[@storytellerbyfire3279]

@thetweefirebug Lol Yes! That would have been a fun twist to explore and could have foreshadowed him going evil at the end too.

[@Crocadillius1123]

I feel like Krim is like Sampson in the Bible, where he draws his analytical prowess from his hair

[@louisoftheforest7143]

So as someone who both really wants to know the plot of books like these without wanting to read them AND is working on becoming a writer, these videos are AMAZING. The amount of writing knowledge you can gain from this so immense I almost feel like I'm taking a class, only that it's more fun and the teacher is ranting most of the time (which I love btw). Literally the only downside to this is the fear that one day I might wake up to a several hour long video going into a book I wrote and why it's bad xD

[@dobsilambre1305]

I try not to have blatant logistical errors in the fantasy universe I am currently writing and I am somewhat oscillating between thinking “meh, my protagonist wouldn’t know or care about those details yet (she’s 8 right now)” and “but what if it throws the reader out of the immersion??” - so the fear of a 6h video on is totally on my point dear comrade

[@amandaramey9760]

The best holiday gift I could've ever hoped for was a KrimsonRouge video upload 🙇🏻‍♀️✨💜

[@daughterofyith5393]

When I heard (in both your reviews) that Yarros wanted to include the theme of censorship and restricted information, I just stared at the screen. It's a very good concept to explore, but the way she set up and presented her story just doesn't convey it well, if at all.

[@Icicle_158]

Perhaps the answer is that Yarros’s approach to writing and handling controversial topics is being too safe and simplistic by design. It would be one thing to highlight and underline the familiarities in an underacknowledged historical period, as is the case with Detention and the White Terror. As much of a rush of Taiwanese monster mythology as it is a study of guilt, McCarthyism, and manipulation, it’s evident Red Candle Games put in the mileage to do such a complex task justice. Yarros, meanwhile, takes a markedly different approach. Perhaps the first true warning sign was her comments on receiving feedback on the Shelved Books Podcast. It would be one thing to implore writers to vet the criticism they receive, as it can discern the corrective from the invective. The problem is that Yarros’s advice is tellingly puerile: a protracted Oreo analogy that could elicit eyerolls from creative writers at best, an answer utterly reeking of tone policing at worst. Needless to say, this is the smoke after a forest fire. I won’t elaborate much on Yarros’s frankly pathetic counter-DeSantisian, borderline Rhysandesque posturing at the Library of Congress, given that her anodyne approach to the Afghan War in ITLE could blanch even Donald Rumsfeld. After all, having the cardboard cutout couple reunite and bump uglies before the Fall of Kabul is an unprecedentedly jawdropping approach to covering the crisis. It’s like unironically splicing in the soundtrack to “Team America: World Police” to the most disturbing scenes of “Spec Ops: The Line”. This galling anodynity isn’t even limited to Yarros’s fiction, as a hastily revised Instagram post of her (weakly) lampshaded stance on the Gaza War retains most of the discordant echoes. For the record, the Expert Book Smuggler has the relevant screenshots. Tl;Dr: There’s a reason why, in my notes on ITLE, my patience collapsed after Nathan (by extension Yarros and any of her puppet characters) pontificated on war for the umpteenth time. Try as she might to fashion herself a Cornelius Slate or a Vivian Monroe, the comments and stories she has concocted puts her closer to a Zachary Comstock. Then again, those three characters have far more depth than the Violets and Xadens of Yarros’s bibliography.

[@daughterofyith5393]

@@Icicle_158 For Iron Flame specifically, I think it's either of two things - she wanted to limit potential controversy and ended up being too simplistic in how she portrayed a complex issue, or she just didn't have the talent to weave something this multi-layered into a genre that is, in itself, multi-layered and complex. Or she was rushing to churn out her next paycheck. That is also a possibility.

[@Icicle_158]

Agreed, especially for the first and third reasons. Given her comments in that Entertainment Weekly piece about Fourth Wing, I fervently think Red Tower’s bottom line was a key reason Empyrean took flight. Yarros definitely understands how to tincture her fiction to surf market waves, I will grant her that. The cynicism surrounding that notion, however, occludes my perception of her. If an artist writes for the market itself and the base cravings of its readers, what is forfeit in return? IDK, I’m going through Percival Everett’s “Erasure” and I can’t say I didn’t remember this specific series when I dived into “My Pafology”, the book within said novel.

[@daughterofyith5393]

@@Icicle_158 Oh, I'm not for writing things tailored specifically to a certain market. Yes, you need to be mindful of your target audience (especially if they're not adults), but castrating your prose to fit them is not the way to go. Yarros at least tried to do something, but this is the same mindset that leads to overtropification of fiction a'la Lightlark.

[@marocat4749]

Its no attack on titan for sure thats actually great at history revisionism in that the complexity what people belief happened and who talks about history can vary a lot. And propaganda.

[@cpm9747]

I think I've figured out why they have a shortage of riders: they keep killing them before they can graduate.

[@OrangeHand]

The college: (shocked Pikachu face)

[@crorinu]

A mutual of mine on Threads has a cute way of explaining how they choose POV, and I have adopted it, too. "If it fits, I sits." I never write from just one POV type, I go with whatever will tell the story best. Have things the MC doesn't know but would spoil twists for the reader and you can't hide it in third? First person! Have moments of description where the MC will not actually be looking at something as closely as you want to describe it? Third close! Need to know everything all at once? Omniscient! Every story has a POV it should be told through, and I think this series should have been third close with sparing POV character shifts.

[@chrisyoung1576]

dude, I was thinking about your channel earlier and then voila you uploaded video

[@KrimsonRogue]

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED!

[@quinnzykir]

Author: My main character isn’t a self insert but she has the same interests, disabilities as me and same attitudes. BUT SHES NOT A SELF INSERT. At least with my book my self insert is just a side character that the main characters talks to from time to time. Mainly because the name Aaron has this weird stereotype where you’re either a dick or you die horribly.

[@KrimsonRogue]

Or you pronounce your name incorrectly during roll call.

[@JacobSzukalski]

@@KrimsonRogue Ya done messed up, A-A-Ron!

[@quinnzykir]

@@JacobSzukalski pre-sent

[@marocat4749]

I mean a lot wtiters do, artists and creators in general. including cameos in series and movies. Be assured pretty common. including stephen kings many author characters?

[@seanpoulton2446]

I always like to add pieces of my personality and interest in my characters. That way I can connect with them in some way. I even do that with the villains. It just helps me write them better

[@AlexisHiemis]

I think it's really great that you assembled a group of affected people to talk about EDS, this is how you do journalism and include credible sources.

[@etherealvaleska4483]

Re: the discussion of a character having their whole worldview shattered at 30:35 -- it reminds me of Metal Gear Rising. The main character, Jack, is so hell-bent on destroying those who would take advantage of desperate and underprivileged people by turning them into cyborgs and sending them off to war, that he completely loses sight of the fact that, during his quest to take down these evil organizations, all the cyborgs he's killing ARE those desperate and underprivileged people being taken advantage of. There's a phenomenal scene where another character forces him to come to this realization, and it destroys him. As he's thinking about how many people he's killed, there are more cyborgs attacking him, and he has to kill them to survive, but you can hear their thoughts as they run towards him. They don't hate Jack, they don't want him dead. They don't even want to be there. But they have to provide for their families, and so they're following the orders they're given. And then Jack kills them. It's violent and confronting, and it's even disturbing to the player, who realizes all the "NPCs" they've been casually killing aren't just mindless grunts. Jack grapples with the guilt and grief from this for the rest of the game. He doesn't stop killing cyborgs who are defending the corrupt organizations, but he feels far more conflict every time it happens. I think that is an incredible way to show the effects of a character having their worldview shattered. It doesn't have to change their core motivations, and it doesn't even have to change the methods they use to achieve their goals. But it does have to make them reckon with the effects of their choices, and it should cause them immense inner turmoil. (And bonus points if you can make the reader/player also have a similar reckoning with their own mindset and choices while reading the book or playing the game)

[@lowberrymix]

A simliar thing happens in Nier, when you get dropped on earth to destroy the machines but then you see them call each other family and cry and presumably show agony and at first it's alright because these maschines are still seperated but then they overlap and you have to defends yourself from them while hearing their cries. Those moments really stick with you

[@Unidentified.Problem]

Hey Krim, thank you for the video! Long essay ahead so you have been warned. I just wanted to let you know that you missed one detail involving the dragon bond breaker water. It's small, so easily missed with everything else going on, and only really discussed in two actual lines: the serum is developed for controlling Jack/venin. On page 565, Violet says to Xaden: "The serum... [Jack] must be why they developed the signet-blocking serum" On page 566, Xaden says to Nolon: "I'm assuming you know what to do with him? Seeing as you've been doing it since May?" To which Nolon nods and uses the serum on Jack, letting him fall unconscious. This means that the serum is less than a year old and likely still experimental, further implied by Professor Grady stating on page 137 to "let us know if you feel any side effects" during it's introduction so they don't know how it effects non-venin. Meaning that this year's RSC is likely the military's first time testing it on non-venin individuals, which is super fucked up considering they got dropped in a forest with no connection to their dragons. This also leads the reader to think that the reason they brought back Jack is because the higher ups somehow knew about his venin transformation and saw it as a chance to experiment on their enemy, by either creating this serum or perfecting what they already had. There is no contrxt in the book that I can recall to draw on for this, but it is what I extrapolated from the text presented. (Which makes it even funnier if you consider that the Navarre military cares more about recovering bodies of their enemies than the bodies of their students/actual allied forces.) Meaning that It makes even less sense when you realize that they would be doing such experiments at a school when the existence of venin is supposed to be such a massive secret. I know Nolon and Brennan have rare powers but uh...seems like an easy way to cause an information leak they so depesperately wanted to avoid. Maybe just have them (Nolon and the military) doing this at an outpost or at least partially off the campus to be more secret than "guarded door in the infirmary" which obviously wasn't a well kept secret. It also makes it even crazier that the Navarre military is using it on their own soldiers for training when, as far as we know, this development is only something the Navarre military knows how to make. I guess the first few times would make sense to dismiss it (secret tech and what not) but especially after the weird leaps of logic Violet does to get to realizing the serum was made for Jack, it should bring up a LOT more questions about the military and the college at large. Also, since we can now infer that the serum was made/perfected during the time period Jack was dead, using it on Violet's entire class and (presumably) all classes going forward seems like a massive information leak, especially when communicating with other riders. One casual mentioning to an older rider and getting a "wtf are you talking about" reaction would be enough for anyone to start wondering when this serum was created and for why. After all, the question then has to be asked: does it work on griffin riders? Does Then again, that's assuming anyone in the college has a brain cell to use to ask these kinds of questions which, thus far, has not been proven. Anyways, solid video like always! I hope you have a happy holiday (however you celebrate or not) and can't wait to see more from you!

[@Fraise-wg4fd]

Completely forgot that part, and I do agree this raises more questions than it answers! Another thing I feel was missed (minor, and also a bit of a murky thing in Yarros’s writing imo) is that the stone (mentioned towards 4:30:01) has a use that’s explained or hinted at in the book (I read it 6 months ago so my memory’s not perfect). From what I remember, every rebellion kid had one gifted to them by Xaden’s mother, and it’s the reason behind their rebellion relics, which were not an intended thing, as well as the reason behind their not being affected by Melgren’s power (as he was the one who killed their parents, along with his dragon), hence him not being able to foresee anything relating to them when they’re together. The way it was described, I have a feeling like the rebellion relics are supposed to fall along the ‘more of a blessing than a curse’ trope, maybe a reveal will be made in the next tome? I’m a bit sceptic concerning it all but who knows. If you’re reading this Krim, love the video!! It’s both great to hear your opinions on the book and on writing in general. Hope you haven’t lost too many brain cells making this :))

[@waywardscythe3358]

Naomi Novik pulled off the "dragons dont want to follow orders but will for the sake of their humans" really well. Strongly recommend her series His Majesty's Dragon.

[@fz_dracohart1255]

I'm still in book 1 but I vouch it's really amazing so far and I can't wait to read more. Definitely much better dragon fantasy than this iron dumpster flame

[@amandapanda5087]

Recommendation noted!

[@lynxietheroaha5240]

as someone who enjoys writing sillier goofy/halfassed fantasy.. this.. this feels like something i wrote; but with a disability i wouldn't add due to knowing NOTHING about it. instead of hooking me in like the first one; it gave me the mad urge to write my own version.. in a world i already have built, less focussed on romance and so much more on dragons, but maybe thats cause i like dragons,,

[@vapause7268]

I've only just started the review, but thank you EDS council. I think having this insight is incredibly important for stuff like this.

[@ithseem]

I am a simple person. I see Krim upload, I smile

[@seekersandshadowsart]

Finding out that Yarros is an alumnae of my University was particularly funny, given I found that out because a friend of mine was going through HELL trying to finish just the first book prior to an interview with the author. Good to know reviews on this series are consistent 😭😭

[@Affenzunge]

HEY! The Babadook is also my favourite horror movie of all time (well, it keeps jostling for postion with Wake in Fright. The Australians just know how to do horror)

[@KrimsonRogue]

Considering the animals they have down there, it stands to reason they understand horror.

[@isaacthered]

Speaking of disability representation, can we talk about how bad Yarros is at handling food allergies? Like: - Having a character with a food allergy be a secondary antagonist whose allergy only exists as an easy way to defeat them is _the_ trope you aren't supposed to do when writing characters with food allergies. Like to the point where it's hard to get mad at it considering how absurd it is to see someone actually using it? And it seems like she's setting up to do it multiple times? - The allergy's introduction in the first book is framed as a stock "bad guy mistreating his minions to demonstrate his depravity" scene when Jack's friends were actually inches away from killing him, and it's pretty understandable that he'd get mad about that. - It's implied in that scene that Jack's friends don't know about the allergy, which doesn't make sense? He already had to tell the dining staff about it, which includes a rotating group of students he does not know, so he can't really keep it a secret to avoid assassination. He might as well tell them so they can help him dodge attempted murders using the allergy. - Actually, why doesn't the school let Jack make his own food? Most real schools let you at least bring your own food in if you have an allergy, and the murder college is already offloading food preparation work to its students. It would be really easy for them to put Jack off in his own pineapple-free corner of the kitchen. It would also be a lot harder for potential assasins to find out which specific thing he's allergic to that way. - How is Jack treating his allergy? Epinephrine, the medication used in the real world to treat severe reactions, is a hormone the human body already makes on its own, so it makes sense that there'd be some magical way to isolate it, but it's never discussed to my knowledge, with him kind of just showing up again after the one major reaction depicted so far. Epinephrine is also heat-sensitive and something you generally should carry on you at all times. Reactions can happen at unexpected intervals after exposure and you need to take it as soon as possible as symptoms appear or survival gets a lot less likely. Despite that, Jack doesn't seem concerned about regularly needing to dodge fire breath. - The first book makes a big deal about how Violet was being almost recklessly selfless by incapacitating Jack by force-feeding him a fistful of pineapple rather than stabbing him during a fight, but considering how good the school is at healing stab wounds, the pineapple was definitely the more deadly option in that situation. Especially considering Jack immediately blacked out after eating it. In real life, that's usually the last symptom you get before dying, and Jack would not have lasted long enough for anyone to carry him to the Healers' Quadrant. - Why is the Sage hinging all his plans on the single easiest guy to assassinate in the entire school? Jack has only lived this long because nobody on the dining staff at the college where almost every living person has a kill count felt like murdering the guy who makes a new enemy every other social interaction. It would make sense if Jack was literally the only person the Sage could get to infilttate the place, but we already see multiple people get into the school for the sole purpose of assassinating someone else, and Xaden turned into a venin almost accidentally. How was this the easiest way for the Sage to sabotage the wards? - Food allergies also disqualify you from serving in the real world military. Violet has the excuse that her mother is an important general. Not only does Jack not have that going for him, but the healers need to spend a ton of resources over the course of months to revive him from an entirely unrelated injury. Why is he even here?

[@zerozeroren]

4:34:32 "I'm not fighting you for a man but I am fighting you for a man!" Can I just say how tired I am of "The Dreaded Ex" trope? This crap plays out the same every time: oh, the plain, ordinary, "flawed" MC meets The Ex, who is soooooo beautiful, waaay prettier, and it makes the MC sooo insecure (despite the relationship of the Ex with the Love Interest ending a long time ago). Why do they love me??? The ex is so perfect, of course the LI shout love the Ex still! But Oh? What's that??? The Ex is actually... A shitty person??? GASP please spare me, it's tedious and infuriating

[@haunting_bluejay]

Im sick of the trope too! So I’m kinda introducing it in one of the stories I’m working on, but instead of doing the “dreaded ex” the ex is basically like “lol ew I don’t want him? I have a cute husband of my own” and then they end up becoming besties and bond over poking fun at the MMC.

[@CatCheshire]

Technically... She's fighting for status not a man. If there was someone else available with similar status, she would go for that guy. But yeah, even in this variant, this troupe is so used it's boring.

[@luisfreitas4724]

The fast promotions are common during times of war. Napoleon became a General super super young because he was one of the few survivors

[@jamespetitious1311]

Napoleon was also incredibly skilled. There’s a reason he was able to beat the rest of Europe several times. These characters are _not_ Napoleon.

[@luisfreitas4724]

@jamespetitious1311 I mean, yeah for sure, he was just an example there are several others in history

[@lavendermothboy]

yesterday i went to a POTS clinic and basically the only reason I dont have EDS is because my joints don't pop and i heal normally. i have hypermobility spectrum disorders (POTS, hypermobility syndrome, as well as fibromyalgia) and know enough about EDS to rule it out so i think i'm relatively qualified to talk on this topic. i learned that any hypermobility disorder can be made worse with each virus a person gets. Violet suddenly "getting EDS symptoms"/"her strength stolen" is actually possible and people in a medieval fantasy setting may think that was the cause. however, that's about the extent of the accuracy. it's so fascinating to me because as an autistic writer i can't write characters who are NOT autistic, so from an own voices author on EDS, i'd expect the rep to be so much better (in terms of accuracy) but she just ignores it for the sake of the plot in the way that makes it just "a weakness" instead of an actual thing she has to live with on the daily.

[@PanicattheDiscourse]

Your comment had a read more and you mentioned the POTS and the hypermobility and my first thought was "lemme guess, a fellow spectrum buddy" and there it was. How are the bowel problems and the dizzy spells treating you?

[@lavendermothboy]

@@PanicattheDiscourse fine, fine (poorly. im dealing with them though)! you guessed correctly! and from what i learned yesterday, violet very well should be autistic, queer and/or have POTS. i don't know if the author has either but its just unlikely.

[@chelsey8737]

​@@lavendermothboyid riot if she made her queer or autistic. Its bad enough that the EDS is wrong but shed stereotype the heck out bisexuals (which is likely what she'd make Violet) and autistic people