In many fantasy stories, the strong female character is usually this tall and all mighty warrior. She can fight with a weapon like a sword or even a bow and arrow and win battles like it’s any other typical day (looking at you, Katniss Everdeen and Feyre Archeron). Violet Sorrengail from “Fourth Wing”, on the other hand, is nothing like that.
Violet is small with a fragile body. She gets tired and hurt often. She’s honestly not the kind of person anyone would look at and expect to survive, especially in a world where dragon riders are trained to fight and kill. It’s often the weakest links are taken out first. Most people would count her out, target her or coddle her like a baby bird.
Still, Violet does survive. The best part about that is it had nothing to do with her strength and everything to do with her brain. She studied and paid attention to those around her as well as herself when making plans to win battles her own way. She knows her own body’s limits, and she finds ways to work around them.
She’s also very determined, and it showed. People told her she couldn’t make it and tried to break her spirit, but she kept going anyway, even when it hurt and she was scared.
What makes Violet strong is not how hard she can hit and keep going. It’s how hard she can think, how much she cares and how she never gives up.
In a world that often expects women in stories to act like men or be insanely skilled with a weapon and fierce to be taken seriously, Violet shows another way. She is still a hero, but she does it her way. She makes being clever, kind and brave just as powerful as being fast or strong.
Violet reminds us that strength is not about muscles. It is about heart.
