Brennan Sorrengail

We have to start with the golden children of Basgiath War College, the Sorrengails, to see how extreme family expectations can completely distort a person's approach to a life or death challenge.

We see that distortion so vividly in Brennan Sorrengail.

Oh, heavily.

He is the eldest son of General Lilith Sorrengail.

And we are covering chapters/POVs one through six.

Which means we are diving deep into Brennan, Mira, Xaden, Garrick, Dain, and Bodhi.

But before we begin, please listen closely to our spoiler warning, because this episode and the next one too includes spoilers for all available books in The Empyrean Series.

That is Threshing Day, Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, and Onyx Storm.

Instead, disappointing his parents is significantly [laughs] higher fear for him, more specifically and unsurprisingly, disappointing Lilith.

If he does not bond today, he is most terrified of the look of shame, shame, that she would have on her face.

According to Mira, though, Brennan has always been Mr.

Perfect.

Oh my goodness.

Starting with Brennan Sorrengail.

It is nine years before the start of Fourth Wing, and Brennan, the oldest Sorrengail sibling, is about to enter the forest.

But Violet's big brother is struggle-busting.

He is terrified of becoming the greatest disappointment to the Sorrengail line.

The one, the only Papa Asher Sorrengail.

[laughs] I'm so happy.

And he's here with some much-needed fatherly advice about which dragon to bond for Brennan because Brennan wants a reasonable and predictable dragon, and his father's like, "Maybe not." His father only wants his son to make it out alive.

Right.

We get the perspectives of Mira Sorrengail, labeled the fearless rider, and Brennan Sorrengail, the brilliant tactician.

These are the older siblings of Violet, the protagonist of the original book.

The inclusion of Mira and Brennan introduces the agonizing friction of the observer.