Proverbial Wisdom
The very first words of the narrative—even before the chapter number—is a metaphor. “A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.” Each chapter opens with a quote from an important text within the world in which it is set. In this case, the source is “Article One, Section One The Dragon Rider’s Codex.” This metaphorical imagery is intended to immediately substantiate just how integral to this world with its suggestion of a kind of symbiosis existing between the right dragon and the right rider that, symbolically at least, reaches the level of mortal dependence on each other.
Damaged Heart
For much of the story the protagonist, Violet, is torn between her first puppy love and her first serious crush. As significant as the romantic triangle is the ideological magnetism pulling her in two opposite directions. When Violet writes in narration, “My heart hits the ground” it is related to both. She has just learned that Dain, her childhood love, values rules and order more than he does Violet. That leaves Xaden, whose priorities are just the opposite. Notably, she writes only that her heart hit the ground and not that it broke when it landed. The metaphor thus suggests strongly Xaden can pick it up and put it back in place completely intact.
Avenging Xaden
At a particularly intense moment, the appearance of Xaden moves Violet almost to excessive poetic language to describe him. “Xaden fills the doorway like some kind of dark, avenging angel, the messenger of the queen of the gods.” This mythic language proves compellingly applicable, however. Within seconds, Xaden is no longer just standing there. He is living out his appearance as a vengeful agent of the gods by snapping his fingers and setting loose a massacre of his enemies.
Animals
The truth of the matter is that Violet often loses control of herself when writing about Xaden. “He looks deceptively calm as he approaches, but I can feel his tension as if it’s my own, like a panther prowling toward his prey.” The use of animals as a point of comparison when using similes has long proven effective. Even if the only feline a reader has ever actually seen prowling toward prey is a housecat, the imagery is easily formed in the mind. The context of this quote has Violet recognizing and commenting upon the effect that Xaden has upon her which serves the purpose making it easier to apply the imagery directly to Xaden. By this point, he has made her sex-crazed.
Insult
Although set in a fantasy world where soldiers ride dragons, the vernacular of the language would feel right at home among any group of twenty-year-olds training for war. “You smell like dragon ass,” says one character to another. The actual response from the person accused of smelling bad is an F-bomb, however, so one could easily substitute dragon for any animal in our own world and the scene would still feel just as real.
