Who is Jack Barlowe in ‘Fourth Wing’?
When it comes to romanceable fantasy hotties, Jack Barlowe is not one of them. This guy’s flags are all shades of red. Crimson. Carmine. Burgundy, even. Who is Jack in Fourth Wing? Someone I hope you never have the displeasure to meet.
Jack Barlowe: A Barlowegraphy
We first meet Jack Barlowe 200+ feet in the air. Like our hero Violet Sorrengail, he is a candidate for the elite Riders Quadrant, but in order to be fully instated in the position, he, Violet and the other candidates must first cross the parapet. What’s the parapet? It’s an 18 inch wide bridge of stone that spans a massive chasm, and no, it does not have railings. It’s one of many trials that rider candidates must face, and one that not all candidates survive. Jack is partially to blame, considering he pushed a rider candidate from the parapet to their death within five minutes of us meeting him. He tries to do the same to Violet, but she’s able to escape him. From that moment on, Jack decides to make it his personal mission to kill Violet by any means necessary. What a jerk.
The killing doesn’t stop there. Throughout the cadets’ training, Jack personally kills multiple candidates in sparring matches. Most of the names on the death roll—the daily tally of candidates who lost their lives in training—are there because of him. He even tries to kill Violet in a sparring session using his Pain Projection abilities, but she manages to stop his onslaught by throwing some oranges at him (he’s allergic).
One would think that Jack’s ruthless attitude towards his comrades would prove to be his undoing, but it’s also the reason for his bond with his closest of allies: his dragon. His dragon Baide is a brutal orange scorpiontail that has four previous riders. Upon meeting Jack, Baide senses that they are cut from the same bloody cloth, and the dragon chooses him for a rider.
Violet, sick of Jack’s nonsense, finally put the man out of his misery by dropping half a mountain on his head during the War Games—a series of lethal combat trials meant to push candidates to their limits. One would think that would be the end of Jack, but one would be wrong. His broken body is recovered and healed by Nolon, and at the end of Iron Flame, it’s revealed that he has become a venin. As if this guy couldn’t get any worse. At least his personal grudge with Violet is over. He let it go after she basically killed him. Maybe it’s maturing? Probably not.
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