Rebecca Yarros on writing THAT “Iron Flame ”throne room scene
The Empyrean series author breaks down one of her steamiest scenes.
"My house. My chair. My woman."
With those six words, author Rebecca Yarros had readers falling even more in love with Xaden Riorson. In Iron Flame, the second book in the Empyrean series, Xaden strips down his lover and the novel's heroine, Violet Sorrengail, to worship her body (and ahem, that's not only with words).
Placing her on his throne in his home in Tyrrendor, he drives home the fact that she is the only one he would choose as his queen. And while the scene is hotter than dragon fire, Yarros tells EW it was about eliminating any questions about Xaden's romantic intentions.
"I'm a weird plotter," she says. "I sit down and think about where the book is going and the scenes that prove my points and get these people there, in a non-punny way. I put everything on index cards and I put it on my desk, and then, I move them into order. The throne scene was something I really wanted to drive home to emphasize the point that he's made his choice. There's no love triangle here. There's no struggle here."
Katie Marie Seniors; Entangled: Red Tower Books
Rebecca Yarros, Iron FlameIron Flame follows Cadet Violet Sorrengail as she grapples with the long-hidden truth about her country, now becoming a part of Xaden's team of rebels. But that includes his ex, gryphon flier Catriona, with whom Violet instantly clashes.
Yarros understands readers concerns that Cat, Xaden's ex, would become a stereotypical mean girl engaged in a cat fight with Violet — and she wanted to remove that from the equation. "Cat is power hungry," she clarifies. "It's a power struggle and no one would ask that about a man. A man would do whatever it would take to get that crown."
"So, I wanted to make sure the point was there that there was never a triangle," Yarros continues. "That he made his choice, and the problem was actually Violet not trusting herself. It has nothing to do with her not trusting Xaden. She doesn't trust herself."
While readers, including the EW staff, can't get enough of the sexy scene, Yarros says there's one individual who wasn't interested — Violet's dragon Tairn. "Tairn's like I'm going to peace out for a second," she says, noting that he would close off his bond with Violet in a moment like this. "He's not there for that."
Yarros may have changed readers' lives with this mind-blowing moment, but she isn't aware of the ongoing TikTok discourse about it. Instead, she just tries to see how far she can push the envelope with her editor. "I knew this was exactly what I wanted and I wait to see if my editor's going to pull me back," she explains. "So, I fling it out there and I'm like, 'And this is this!' and I wait for her to be like, 'Pull it back.' But she didn't, she let it run."
And for that, we salute her. Watch the video above for more.
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