Why "Start a Riot" by Banners is my Empyrean theme song
(And not just because of what we call a group of dragons + riders.) Plus more songs on my crying-over-fictional-characters playlist
This post contains spoilers for Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, and Onyx Storm. Please do not let me ruin your fun if you haven’t read the series but plan to!
Nothing eases (though perhaps also prolongs?) a book hangover like listening to songs I associate with the story world I’m not ready to leave. When I blew through Naomi Novik’s Scholomance trilogy last fall I put this soundtrack on repeat. Now I’m building a longer one for Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean series1.
Here are the lyrics and musical vibes transporting me to Basgiath War College and Riorson House and miles (upon miles and miles) of heartbreak in between!
Ultimate anthem: "Start a Riot" by Banners
I imagine this vibe between Violet and Xaden throughout the series.
I will march down an empty street like a ship into the storm / No surrender, no retreat, I will tear down every wall [Xaden ripping apart Basgiath to rescue Violet from Varrish; Violet and Andarna intent on “every possible path”] / Just to keep you warm, just to bring you home
If your world falls apart, I'd start a riot / If night falls in your heart, I'd light the fire [like Xaden is literally shadow and Violet can light the darkness with her signet?! Too perfect] / In the dark, when you sound the alarm / We'll find each other's arms
For your love, all you are, I'd start a riot
Other songs I imagine Violet and Xaden sharing
“Let’s Hurt Tonight” by OneRepublic
When you came home, worn to the bones / I told myself this could get rough / Oh, I know you're feeling insane / Tell me something that I can explain [Violet always wants Xaden to tell her "something real"]
I'll hit the lights and you lock the doors / Tell me all of the things that you couldn't before [fitting for all the ongoing secrets] / Don't walk away, don't roll your eyes / They say love is pain, well darling, let's hurt tonight
“Walking the Wire” by Imagine Dragons
Oh, the storm is raging against us now / If you're afraid of falling [you know, like off the Parapet… or for a secretive shadow wielder] then don't look down / But we took the step, oh, we took the leap / And we'll take what comes
“Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Rey
Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful? / Will you still love me when I got nothing but my aching soul? [hurts extra with Xaden retaining just that tiny bit of his soul that loves Violet when he goes asim (or possibly sage?) at the end of Onyx Storm] / I know you will, I know you will, I know that you will
“Battle Born” by The Killers
You lost faith in the human spirit / You walk around like a ghost / When you shine, you're a hilltop mansion [a manor like Riorson House perhaps?] / So how'd you lose the light? / No, you can't stop now / When they break your heart / When they cause your soul to mourn [obviously every mention of souls wrecks me now] / Remember what I said / Boy, you was battle born
When the night falls on the land / Are you haunted by the sound? / It's gonna take more than a hand to turn this thing around / Won't you lean it on me? Rescue, set me free
"Born to Die" by Lana Del Rey
Oh, my heart it breaks every step that I take / But I'm hoping that at the gates, they'll tell me that you're mine / Don't make me sad, don't make me cry / Sometimes love is not enough and the road gets tough, I don't know why / Come and take a walk on the wild side / Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain [or a snowstorm 👀]
Songs I hear Xaden dedicating to Violet
“Past Lives” by Børns
Past lives couldn't ever come between us [both family histories and drama with their ex relationships] / I'll take you way back, countless centuries / Don't you remember that you were meant to be my Queen of Hearts, meant to be my love [all his foreshadowing in Onyx that he’s thinking about marriage—a “duchess at least”]
So save that heart for me / 'Cause girl you know that you're my destiny / Swear to the moon, the stars, the sons and the daughters / Our love is deeper than the oceans of water
My ancient kingdom came crashing down without you [Xaden loves Tyrrendor so much but explicitly states he cares more about Violet—“I’ll use Tyrrendor to protect you”] / Baby child, I'm lost without your love / Diamond sparrow, my moonlit majesty / You know I need you, come flying back to me
“Too Sweet” by Hozier
I aim low / I aim true, and the ground's where I go [particularly fitting with the whole venin-channeling-from-the-ground thing] / I work late, where I'm free from the phone [or shielding you out so you don't know what I'm up to] / And the job gets done, but you worry some, I know / You know you're bright as the morning, as soft as the rain / Pretty as a vine, as sweet as a grape / You're too sweet for me [Xaden always insisting he is not soft or sweet]
“Cringe” by Matt Maeson
This is my all-time Xaden song. (It was also my all-time Orion song in The Golden Enclaves, so clearly I just think it fits “MMCs I’m sort of in love with finding themselves leaning into darkness”. 😂 But I think it’s even better for Xaden.)
Lover, come over, look what I've done / She said I'm looking like a bad man, smooth criminal / She said my spirit doesn't move like it did before [because I am losing my SOUL dammit, ugh] / She said that I don't look like me no more, no more [when Violet looks at him and says it’s like seeing a stranger dressed up as the man she loves]
Oh, we just don't blend now / All of my attempts seem to weather / Oh, I make you cringe now / Don't I make you cringe? [and Violet physically fights the urge to cringe and pull away]
“Hallucinogenics” by Matt Maeson
Cause I just couldn't open up, I'm always shifting
I carried on like the wayward son / And now through and through, I've come undone / And now I am just but the wayward man / What with my bloodshot eyes [venin eyes] and my shaky hand
“Sink” by Noah Kahan
Oh, she sleeps with one eye closed [the others telling Violet to rethink her sleeping arrangements, her insisting Xaden would never hurt her but still not sleeping well] / So she can tell when she's alone
She's the sunset in the west / She's sleep when I need rest / And though this ship can be saved yet / And oh, for you, I would never sink again [especially when he is going 70+ days without channeling]
Oh, she's the path on which I tread / Oh, she's the shiver up my neck / Oh, she's the blood rush to my head / Oh, for you, I would never sink again
“Your Needs, My Needs” by Noah Kahan
Who was I to watch you wilt? / You ain't gotta tell me what it means / Trace the outlines of your dreams [Violet the dream walker] / You'll always be a flower on my skin [a literal violet!] / And the pain that I am in
Subtle change, shorter days / Dead-eyed, dead weight / Your life, your dreams / Your mind, your needs / My needs
"Loveless" by X Ambassadors
When I met you, I was half a man / With half a heart and half a chance / I can't give you my love / I can't give up on you [“I’m selfish so I’m going to keep you”] / I can't give you love cause I'm loveless
"Tear in My Heart" by Twenty One Pilots
Sometimes you've got to bleed to know that you're alive and have a soul / But it takes someone to come around to show you how [ie his love for Violet allowing him to maintain that small bit of his soul]
She's the tear in my heart, I'm alive / She's the tear in my heart, I'm on fire
Songs I hear Violet dedicating to Xaden
“From Where You Are” by Lifehouse
I see this as part of the vibe for book four.
So far away from where you are / These miles have torn us worlds apart / And I miss you / I feel the beating of your heart / I see the shadows of your face / Just know that wherever you are / I miss you and I wish you were here
“Take on the World” by You Me At Six
I can see the pain in your eyes [she’s so attuned to his tension every time they are beyond the words and he’s struggling not to channel] / Oh, believe me, and I have tried / No, I won't pretend to know what you've been through / You should know, I wish it was me, not you
Nobody knows you the way that I know you / Look in my eyes, I will never desert you / And just say the word / We'll take on the world
And it's the fight of our lives / You and I, we were made to thrive / And I am your future and I am your past / Never forget, we were built to last / Step out of the shadows and into my life / Silence the voices that haunt you inside
“The Great War” by Taylor Swift
I am manifesting this resolution vibe for the end of the series! Happy ending, please. (And by “happy ending” I’m realizing I mean… just Violet and Xaden together in some way. I can probably handle almost anything else. Oops.)
My knuckles were bruised like violets [I mean violets?! Come on] / Sucker punching walls, cursed you as I sleep-talked / Spineless in my tomb of silence / Tore your banners down, took the battle underground / You said I have to trust more freely [imagining Ridoc enacting their always-the-same argument here: Xaden stop keeping secrets!] / But diesel is desire, you were playing with fire
There’s no morning glory, it was war, it wasn’t fair / And we will never go back / Always remember / We’re burned for better / I vowed I would always be yours / ‘Cause we survived the Great War
"Snake Eyes" by Mumford and Sons
It's in the eyes / I can tell, you will always be danger [Xaden's eyes changing when he turns venin is obvious, but Violet has also referred to him—and her feelings for him—as dangerous throughout the series] / We had it tonight, why do we always seek absolution?
And the stakes remain too high for this silent mind / And the shake, the lonely itch that courses down my spine / To leave a love divine / Don't leave a love divine
"Wherever You Go" by Ron Pope
I'd say I miss you but think I'd choke on the words / Dreamt a picture and you don't know how it hurts / I had a nightmare / Woke to the sound of your voice but you don't sleep here / I lay awake in the dark / I've been screaming but you don't hear me at all / When the daylight bends I'll follow you wherever you go
"Mess is Mine" by Vance Joy
When you think of love, do you think of pain? / You can tell me what you see / I will choose what I believe / Bring me to your house and tell me "sorry for the mess", hey, I don't mind / You're talking in your sleep, out of time / Well, you still make sense to me, your mess is mine
Songs I hear Xaden singing in general
“All I Need” by Jake Bugg
Call me cynical, but original / Tell me where the fight is [always ready to go off on someone] / Tell me where the high is / I know who you are, and I'm never wrong [I feel this is very fitting for an often-angry inntinnsic] / I believe you're nothing if you think that you are someone [disdain for titles]
"My Eyes" by the Lumineers
Oh, the devil's inside / You opened the door / You gave him a ride / What did you do to my eyes? [maybe a little too on the nose for the venin change but hey, it kills me] / What did you sing to that lonely child? [learning more about Xaden’s backstory and his mom leaving wrecks me] / Promised it all but you lied
"It’s Called: Freefall" by Rainbow Kitten Surprise
Some days end when I need a few friends / Now and again, I could never hope to keep them
Don't get me venting on friends who resent you / 'Cause all you've ever done is been a noose to hang on to / They thought was a necklace, and reckless, they fell into hell [the interesting dynamic between Xaden and his friends here; they obviously love him, and he’s done so much specifically for them, but he is also not an easy person to be close with]
Ain't shit free but falling out / And that shit's easy, lemme show you how it's like
Songs I hear Violet singing in general
“Yellow Flicker Beat” by Lorde
I'm a princess cut from marble, smoother than a storm / And the scars that mark my body, they're silver and gold [also silver hair!] / My blood is a flood of rubies, precious stones / It keeps my veins hot, the fires find a home in me [burning when she uses her lightning wielding signet]
This is the start of how it all ever ends / They used to shout my name, now they whisper it [I can imagine this vibe for book four even among her friends—like people becoming more scared of her and how she handles Xaden being gone] / I dream all year, but they're not the same kinds [dream walker!!] / And the shivers move down my shoulder blades in double time
And now people talk to me I'm slipping out of reach now / People talk to me, and all their faces blur / But I got my fingers laced together and I made a little prison / And I'm locking up everyone that ever laid a finger on me [or on Xaden obviously]
“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me” by Taylor Swift
My understanding is that Rebecca Yarros also agrees this is her anthem.
The who’s who of who’s that is poised for the attack / But my bare hands [like, you know, bare for wielding lightning] paved their paths / You don't get to tell me about sad [this reminds me of when Andarna leaves and Mira says Violet lost her dragon, not a boyfriend—implying losing a boyfriend would be easier—and now that Xaden is gone at the end of Onyx Storm Violet will be devastated]
I was tame, I was gentle till the circus life [Basgiath, growing up in secrets] made me mean / I wanna snarl and show you just how disturbed this has made me / You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me
Songs I hear the riders and fliers singing in general
Especially Vi's squad of course!
"Glory and Gore" by Lorde
There's a humming in the restless summer air [like the humming of magic, of the wards] / And we're slipping off the course that we prepared [literally with the parapet and gauntlet, figuratively with how school and training was supposed to go] / But in all chaos, there is calculation / Now we're in the ring, and we're coming for blood
You could try and take us but we're the gladiators / Everyone a rager but secretly they're saviors / Glory and gore go hand in hand / That's why we're making headlines
Delicate in every way but one (the swordplay) / God knows we like archaic kinds of fun (the old ways) / Chance is the only game I play with, baby [pray to Zihnal] / we let our battles choose us
My Xaden and Garrick anthem
"Brother" by Kodaline
We've taken different paths and travelled different roads / I know we'll always end up on the same one when we're old / And when you're in the trenches and you're under fire I will cover you
If I was dying on my knees / You would be the one to rescue me / And if you were drowned at sea I'd give you my lungs so you could breathe
Oh brother, we'll go deeper than the ink beneath the skin of our [rebellion relic] tattoos / Though we don't share the same blood / You're my brother and I love you that's the truth
I have many more thoughts on how I’ve become obsessed with the Empyrean universe after initially not even loving Fourth Wing… but that’s another post. Stay tuned for reflections on changing minds and embarrassment (and why dragons are so awesome).