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Chapter 1: What are the spoilers for 'The Ballad of Falling Dragons'?
Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Fantasy Fangirls Podcast, where two sisters dive deep into beloved fantasy lore, character themes, theories, and more!
I'm Lexi, older sister and fantasy lore nerd. And I'm Nicole, younger sister and romantic at heart. And today is episode two of our deep dive for The Ballad of Falling Dragons by Sarah A. Parker, where we're covering chapters 17 through 31. As always, please, please, please listen closely to our spoiler warnings.
Every episode, including this one, has spoilers for the entirety of The Ballad of Falling Dragons and, of course, When the Moon Hatched.
We are escaping the Tri-Council today. And if you don't know some of the repercussions of that, well, then you might want to go finish the book. We will be here when you're done.
Next, we at Fantasy Fangirls are adults who say adult things about adult books. In other words, friends, this podcast is rated R.
y'all you think you've seen us feral well we get a finger bang this episode this is our appetizer for next episode with the moss scene as lexi likes to call it so readjust those feral expectations and dear goodness please be mindful of those little listening ears
Be sure to check out our other two podcasts in the Fantasy Fan Girls Media Network. Fantasy Fan Fellas is hosted by our executive producer Hayden and BookTok star Stephen Walker as they do a read-along deep dive of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy.
Then the network's newest podcast, Fantasy Fan Reads, is hosted by the delightful Jess of The Lost Books of Jess. It is all about the joys of reading with author interviews, cozy coffee conversations, and so much more. Give both of these shows in the media network a follow. Link is in the show notes. Additionally, we would love to see you at upcoming live events.
Including our ACOTAR 6 and 7 midnight release parties with Tattered Cover and Booking Gather in Denver, Colorado.
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Chapter 2: How does Raeve confront the truths beneath the icy lake?
This scene between Vea and Beren, it's really unexpectedly touching. When last POV chapter, Vea genuinely thought this dragon was going to kill her, and she's been terrified of him for most of her life. Yet they've both been broken by Tyroth and tossed aside. Now all they have is each other.
Beren looks at Vea with a look she's seen before, right before her ma's dragon leapt into the sky and rested amongst the moons. Beren knows he might not even have the strength to make it up into the sky.
So shifting his wings as best as he can, Beren prepares himself to take off right as his wing stretches, a wind picks up, quote, as though Claude just swept in to hail him into the sky to assist in this final flight. Beren even notices and uses his own momentum to lift his wing and leap, leap, leap. It's not a smooth journey, but eventually Beren makes it up amongst the moons.
When he finds his resting place, Ve hears a groan of relief. He curls up next to a moon plume so close he almost bumps into it, quote, like he's seeking a quiet comfort. It's light. And with one final beat of his wings, he tucks into a ball, covers his face, and then a cracking sound, and he goes still.
This quote, the silence that follows is deafening. Oh, Sarah, you know how to write an emotional scene.
God, this was the first moment I cried in the book, for sure. I was... devastated that this poor Saber Scythe, who was so angry and hurt by their bonded rider, he just ran away to face his own death like justice for Beren.
So here Vea is stranded on her own in the vast and dangerous Ergo Plains, which is in like the northern part of the shade and goes up into the fade with a very, very bad shoulder injury from Tyroth. With Beren now in the sky and Vea without a mount or any provisions or anything, Hope of ever getting out of here is gone. Just zapped. But they she still has to keep going and try.
She can't just lay down and completely give up right now.
Well, she has the diary like she would.
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Chapter 3: What shocking connection does Kyzari discover in her prison cell?
I mean, I think that they're both on the evil scale, but at this point, Ty Roth is in charge of the Southern kingdom. He has his much more resources. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. While Kazari is trying to pretend her food is not moldy mush, she discovers one of the meat chunks has a bone in it. It's not very big, only about the length of her thumb. But this one bone changes everything.
Maybe the creators are looking down on her because not only does she get the nutrients from that bone marrow, but she now has a means to escape. Okay.
I have a question because we know that Kalis with ether magic has a connection to the fate herder and the ability to change or adjust fate. What do you think the odds are of him making it so that this happened in herself?
Like if that was the case, I would feel like a fate herder would have to ensure the guard gave her that right meat bone or something along those lines like i don't i don't know how far it goes i'm gonna call that my own headcanon it's okay if you don't subscribe to that thank you for indulging in me always that's debatable
With this bone, Kazari can break it in half, and then with the two halves, she can grind them down until the ends are sharp and use them as a set of lockpicks, not only to unlock her shackle, but also the door to her cell so she can free herself from this hell. Huzzah! Let's go to work breaking the bone in half and making ourselves a tool to escape.
Like, look at her positive attitude and manifestation for now.
For now, it's doing a lot of heavy lifting right there.
This is like the only happy Kazari episode I think we're going to have. Well, like I was going to say, leaving Kazari on a happy note because we only have so many of those. Let's savor it. Let's jump into the main story of today's episode. If you remember from where we left off last episode, Khan, Rave, Pyrok, and Rhone are in a bit of a pickle.
You see the one and only entrance out of the Tri-Council's citadel, which is kind of like a small city within the larger Bolthame city there. The citadel is currently blocked by a horde of townsfolk desperately chanting, let us in, let us in. The guards are holding the citizens back and even threatening them with their molten bars.
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Chapter 4: What is Kaan's plan for the prison heist?
And he's like, it was an accident. I don't know. The reason we're wondering whether or not it was an accident... It's because when Roan gets approval, not even when he gets approval, even before he gets approval from Khan that this is the new plan, he's like nodding slowly and smiling so wide.
Quote, like just the thought of making something go boom shot him full of life force and alleviated 90% of his problems. Incredible. How does this rune work, you ask? Well, first, it's only going to blow up a little hole in the wall, just a smidge, just a smidge really, just tis but a scratch.
All he needs is a fire weld, a parchment lark, a drop of dragon blood, one of these things is not like the other, or something similar like Khan's Dagamork blood, and snow to make the blood spread further for him to etch the rune. Just a tiny bit of things, but there's kind of one big downside with blood runes.
Rave, always looking out for Khan's well-being, vetoes this option. She used to have a friend who runed. Hey, that's Essie! And when she would use her own blood sometimes, she would pass out. It's a risk when your blood is used for runes. Khan is too big to pass out. Our crew needs him conscious for their escape. He needs to stay safe.
He can't pass out in enemy territory when they could easily get discovered and things would get way, way, way worse. Except there is no escape if Khan does not do this. So A for effort, Rave, but you are overruled.
Where does one blow up a wall? Probably best to do farthest away from the mayhem and the hordes of people trying to get into the Citadel. And conveniently, there's a nice and hidden away section with a giant urn, this time without a dead body in it, shielding them from view.
The moment they are through the wall, they will book it for an underground canal and secure stowage across the border to the burn where conveniently Khan's in charge. They can reel the elemental songs and like 99 of their problems are done.
Roan ruins the bomb that can make both Amy and or go boom by painting Khan's blood and the most elaborate rune. So think shapes there. on the massive wall.
Then he catches a parchment lark on fire, and Rave asks Claude to swiftly carry the flaming lark to the wall, ruined with makeshift dragon blood, Khan's blood, because he's Dagomork, and... You know that, like, hole that should have been no larger than Khan?
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Chapter 5: How does Veya's journey with Elluin's journal unfold?
This is Rave thinking about one of the most powerful people in the world and how this could be a fun training exercise for her. She's always the one pulling. She's never experienced this feeling back. And I love how she's just curious because it's like, oh, like this is interesting.
Quote, nothing like watching someone's lung herniate past their lips to make you realize Claude absolutely has favorites, like hand delivering me a gory bouquet. Honestly, this line alone makes so much sense for why Rave and Claude are besties. I also love how Rave chalks up how powerful she is to manners and compliments with getting Claude to do what she wants.
And don't get me wrong, those go a very long ways, as I always tell my children, but But I'm willing to bet being a Navon blessed by the creators to be powerful enough to guard the Aetherstone might play a factor, too. Not that Rave has any idea. That's who she is. So naturally, Rave is like, oh, yeah, Claude just likes me because I'm extra nice to her. And Rave's efforts work.
She manages to push the counselor back before he can attack again. Rave rips the air from his lungs and the tips of her fingers start itching with that rabid desire to call for more and end him. But before she is able to do so, that part is important. Rave hears dragon wings and the guards shouting. So, oh, it's time to go.
So before we move on to that, let's pause for one particular part in the sequence. There is a very important passage that says, quote, his feet slide back across the stone, pale eyes widening. Innately, I know that he's seen me, seen that I'm not one of them, but female, that I wear no diadem. Oh, my gosh. The irony about that diadem line. Amazing layered meaning there. Sarah, you're so good.
But his eyes widen. The tri-council member is seeing her. I don't think it's only because she's female and is not wearing a diadem and can wield powers here, although that certainly is... Would be a good reason for his eyes to whiten too. No, no, no. I think it's because she is a very specific female who used to wear a diadem. And I think he's thinking, wait, this is impossible.
While we can assume that Elwynn was always veiled around the tri council.
he's got to be putting two and two together right now it also is like what the fuck are you able to do wielding here yes i'm so glad you pulled this because i was thinking the exact same thing and this also brings up a oh shit when we think about the consequences because rave leaves this man alive simply there was no time to kill him this is really what it boils down to but if he is seeing rave and end is like holy shit elo and
The tri-council is in with the twins, with Tyroth and Kadok, which means this man, this tri-councilor right here, could be telling them, hey, I just saw Elowen Nivan. Bad, bad, bad. But even worse, worse, worse, she's with the Burn King.
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Chapter 6: What challenges do the characters face during their escape?
Honestly, other than the single iron pin in her thigh, she's physically okay. She's just emotionally horrific. Pyroc is uncomfortably sober, but otherwise unharmed through all of this, and Rhone was firelashed earlier as one of his punishments. Yeah, remember that, but he's being a trooper.
And then there's Khan, who is thankfully no longer unconscious, because I can just imagine how embarrassing it would have been for him to have been carried via Rigon claw and then have Pyroc hold that over him the rest of his entire life. Yes, Khan has currently five pins embedded in him. Five. Five pins. Bad. If not for his bond with Rigon giving him that extra energy, Khan would be unconscious.
And honestly, unconscious is the best case scenario.
And Khan putting himself in harm's way for Rave's benefit. That's given her all the feelings. First of all, remember she still has, I'm going to call it an emotional hangover from wielding rain. Like Khan will say, even the most experienced blue beads would be affected by that. So there's that as a factor.
But far beyond rain's influence, Khan is far too important of a person to sacrifice himself for a quote, blood lusting assassin with no crown and no folk to serve. Once again, the irony, because yes, you do. Like they have said, you are the rightful queen of the shade. When we reflect on Rave's inner belief last book, the only way to protect the people she loves is to stay away from them.
I think this whole sequence in Bull Thame really challenged that and caused that major shift for Rave. She saw Khan in danger. Moon falls are on the horizon and she is truly coming to terms with accepting how deeply in love
how much she needs to be with this male no more fighting it rave is very much an all or nothing person and she's actively processing that now she is going to be all in with her love for him which will of course lead to their conversation shortly about how if anything happens to him she will rip this world apart
Let's do a quick TLDR on the village of Belen, which is where they are going. Belen is a small hidden Molten Maw rearing village, aka it's a village for raising and training Molten Maw dragons, on the edge of the burn nestled in the mountains very, very, very, very, very close to Boggath, which is the Fade's dragon hatching grounds for Molten Maws.
Given that it's so close to the Fade, this village is where a lot of folk from the burn raise their Molten Maw hatchlings. hatchlings if they're brave enough to risk obtaining an egg and don't want a sabre scythe. Honestly, I feel like this makes a lot of sense. Like, yes, I would love a sabre scythe. I would love any dragon, to be quite frank.
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Chapter 7: How does the theme of sacrifice manifest in this episode?
Elowen is in Khan's bed, running her hand over the strings of his lute and yearning for him. She has a lark in her hand that she doesn't want to set free, but she knows she has to.
remember it was the night of the great flirt that con and elwyn spent their time together and everything seemed fine until the next morning she up and left this is the note that elwyn left when she was blackmailed by ostrand into bonding with Just going to quote this, quote, it, the parchment lark, should say, I love you more times than there are stars in the sky.
It should tell him that he's going to, no, this is the only way I can protect him. The only way I can keep him alive. Only tell him that he's going to be a father is definitely the way that sentence was going to be ending. Elowen lets go of the flute and pulls Khan's malmer from her pocket. She can't even look at it. And then she drops the lark and Elowen rushes out of the room.
Quote, a flare of pain and then nothing. Like the organ just gave up. Perhaps I'll never feel again. Perhaps I don't deserve to. Oh my God. Poor Elowen and poor Rae for how she's starting to see that Elowen isn't this happy-go-lucky person that she really believed or told herself that she was last book in When the Moon Hatched.
Yes. And Rafe has certainly known that Elwynn had secrets, but she's really starting to understand a little bit more, tiny bit more about those secrets and the mistakes that she made. Like breaking Khan's heart when it was the last thing that Elowen ever wanted to do.
And Rafe will, I'm not going to call hold it against Elowen, but she will be a little bit upset at Elowen for why the hell would you do this to him when you should have fought for him? When they get to the green wing, we get a feel for Khan's perspective as he washes his bloody hands. Quote, not wanting to sully Ma's place with the lives I've taken.
All these phases, and at least a few eons after his ma's death, it hurts so much for Khan to barely be able to smell her here anymore. His ma is fading from this world and it hurts more than the pins in his back. Being here just reminds him of the woman his ma was, a female who was a gentle, nurturing, yet naive soul who thought she could wear down Ostrand's edges despite their moral differences.
Khan even wonders if she had known who her children would turn out to be, and how they would impact the world, would she have taken the same path? He's wondering, he's done so many awful things that would his mom even want him in this world? Khan, my heart just bleeds for him because you can tell that everything in this dwelling just makes him miss his ma and reflect on his own faults.
And he doesn't feel like she would be very proud of him. If not for tapping into Rigon's continued strength, Khan would be a lump on the floor, especially once Roan pulls out the pins.
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Chapter 8: What foreshadowing hints are revealed for future conflicts?
Neither of them are dying.
I'm sorry. It was a valid question.
As scally as her declaration is, it is also exactly what Khan needed to hear. He's insecure, OK? He doesn't want to get hurt by her. He's been serving his heart up over and over. And now he finally hears what can put his heart at ease, knowing how fiercely Wraith cares for him.
and how she will not accept living this life without him and her vocalizing that but because of this declaration it also comes with a you are not allowed to put your life above mine again sir well that's not happening because khan will not lose her ever again after all quote i love this you'd have better luck getting the world to spin than convincing me to put my life begin before yours
Okay, there's that mention of the world spinning. That's what I think is foreshadowing. It could be. I think that Kalis is going to put his ether energy into making the world spin, and it will make the world a better place. Somehow.
Kumbaya! it does seem that we and them are at an impasse what do we do with all what do they do i should say very specifically with all this charged tension between the two of them lexy take it away a spicy finger bang that's what rave kisses him with the force of an avalanche in response to his
Tell me to stop challenge slash reminder. His fingers and mouth are on her pebbles and nipples quite a bit as well. She's sorry. I was just, no, this is so fun. Cause this is always me.
I love getting to sit back and watch this. This is hilarious. She's not weird way. I feel like that. I didn't even think of it like that.
She silently begging him for more and rave starts opening up in more ways than one being vulnerable about her feelings and how she almost broke when he was in danger. She never wants to feel that way again. Notably, he can't promise that she won't ever feel that way again. All Khan has is understanding because guess what? He feels the same about her.
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