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loopy777 · 4 years ago

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I have to agree with the fact that Sanderson is so much better when writing an overarching story. I very much regard stormlight archive as his best work ever. That said, some of the problems you mention about warbreaker is still present for way of kings. The storyline is essentially broken into 3 main characters. Kaladin, Dalinar, and Shallan. Dalinar's story is good, but not exactly amazing. It's very, very predictable, but it's executed well enough, at least up until the climax.

Shallan's storyline is far and away the worst of the 3. Like no contest. Like, there is a lot of promise in the idea, with the whole section being focused on a couple of scholars, rather than warriors and slaves carrying siege equipment. Brandon would revisit the concept of scholars in book 4, to much greater effect, but here it's not particularly interesting. The big problem is shallan.

Shallan In book one is not particularly interesting, and the narrative is way too afraid to let her witty comments stand on its own, instead feeling the need to have characters who comment on how clever her dialogue is. Which it generally isn't. Which is bizarre, because there is a lot of genuinely witty characters in the book, shallan just isn't one of them. To make matters worse, her book one climax is completely removed from the books actual climax.

Which is kinda problem, because the climax of Dalinar and Kaladin's storylines is the big, emotional climax of the book, which just makes shallan's storyline feel even less compelling and interesting by comparison than it actually is. Shallan thankfully is much, much better in book 2 and onwards, after some character development.

The heart and soul of stormlight archive though, and way of kings more than any other, is Kaladin Storm blessed and his crew. The tale of the surgeon turned soldier, turned slave is easily the best storyline of the entire book, and it is the overarching story of the series. Kaladin's tale basically the story of the underdog personified, which by its very nature makes his story very compelling.

Kaladin is basically a superhero, in that his most defining trait is his chronic need to protect people, whether it be random innocents, his men, or others. However, Sanderson makes his story incredibly compelling by taking advantage of this. How do you prect your men when your men's job is to essentially soak up arrows for the real troop? How do you protect your men when you have no resources? How do you take what little resources you have to achieve your goals?

Add this in with the fact that unlike Shallan, Kaladin is generally challenged(Especially in book 2, and to a lesser degree in book 1) on his beliefs. Kaladin a very flawed human being. He wants to save and help people. Above pretty much anything else, but he's also incredibly flawed, and people aren't afraid to challenge him on it. People question him, he makes the wrong assumptions, he makes TERRIBLE mistakes due to lack of understanding certain things.

And every single time Kaladin makes big mistakes, they have big, massive consequences that have an immediately negative impact. I don't wanna spoil it, but one of my favorite moments in book 1 is when Kaladin thinks he's finally found a solution, but he fails to take into account how it affects literarily everything outside of his own actions, and is very quickly punished for making this mistake.

However, like any good shonen protagonist, Kaladin keep rising up every time he's struck down, which makes for a very compelling storyline. Especially in book 1, where his exploration of his part of the planet's magic system is very limited. To put it bluntly, this book is where the technical aspects of the magic of stormlight works the absolute best, because Kaladin is very limited in what he can do, so he has to actually use the limited powers he has to his advantage.

All of this culminates in book 1's climax, which is really the best part of the book. It's where Dalinar's storyline reaches its climax, and it's well executed, but it's how it relates to the far more interesting Kaladin storyline that makes it glorious, as it's his storyline that reaches its climax, and fuck me is it amazing. It's where everything that has been built up and developed over the course of the war part of the book finally reaches the point where it all comes together into one.

If there is one bad thing I can say about Kaladin's storyline, it's that book 1 doesn't really do a good enough job of making you realise that Kaladin's depression isn't something that is exclusively tied to his shitty, shitty situation. The bouts of self-loathing and bouts of clinical depression the eternally snarky paladin has isn't going to be magically fixed. It's an ongoing problem he has to deal with long after his life actually gets better. It's extremely realistic is what I'm saying.

And the books deals with that very well over the course of the books, but doesn't really make it clear enough in book one that this is going to be a permanent fixture of Kaladin's life.

And now that I'm fully awake, I realise I probably didn't link the problems with word of kings to the problems at warbreaker. The connection is basically, that Shallan in Wok is an incredibly reactive character, who generally never actually does things. She almost always just reacts to character around her doing things. That gets better in words of radience, but it is very much the case with way of kings.

Hm. I’m not sure if I agree exactly with your diagnosis of Shallan, but I don’t entirely disagree, either. Her storyline is definitely the weakest in the first book, and while I don’t think she’s entirely reactive (Jannah is essentially her antagonist, and the interplay between them is most of what that subplot is about), what driving actions she takes are obscured by all the mystery surrounding her. And that, I think, is where the problem overlaps with Warbreaker. Siri and Vivenna might, according to Sanderson’s outline, drive the plot of the story, but because we’re stuck in their POV and there’s so much mystery, it’s not apparent to the audience what they’re really doing.

At least with Shallan, I don’t think her subplot in ‘Way of Kings’ is meant to climax with the same power as that of Kaladin and Dalinar. They get a proper climax, but Shallan’s subplot in the first book essentially ends with the reveal that she’s not the person we think she is as she comes into new power. I think it’s supposed to be an ominous note, a cliffhanger, as opposed to an ending.

But this is a bit deflating, because this mystery creates a disconnect between Shallan and the audience. We thought we knew her, but it turns out we don’t. And full clarity about her doesn’t even come until the third book in the series. I understand why Sanderson did that (parallels with Dalinar and his arc in the third book, IMO), but it means that Shallan remains at a distance for a long time. With Stormlight Archives, though, it’s more tolerable. It’s a series, so we can wait for ultimate payoff on Shallan and cool our heels for three books until we fully understand her. Plus, as you note, we have really powerful subplots for Dalinar and Kaladin that give each novel a proper solidness.

But with Warbreaker, it’s just one book (I’ve since found out that a sequel is apparently planned, but it’s going to be a long wait), and the book as it stands doesn’t come together fully and seems to be focused on characters who wind up not being the protagonists of the story. Even the villain suffers for being wrapped up in mystery, so that by the time we learn what’s really going on, the reaction becomes, “WOW WHAT A TWIST!!! ...but eh, cool motive, not really interesting.”

That said, I don’t mean to be so down on Warbreaker. It’s fine. I’ve read far worse, and I enjoyed it. It just has some flaws I would not have expected from Sanderson, but perhaps are indicative of weaknesses that his penchant for multi-books epics mitigates.

#thekingofwinterblog

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mysterious-prophetess · 4 years ago

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Thoughts on why I think Rey went so wrong-in my opinion- despite a promising start

Warning: This is rambling and unfocused so I’m sorry in advance for that. Also, this is a personal opinion. You can love Rey and that’s OK. Don’t take anything I say to heart. This is just my thoughts.

The character of Rey from the Disney Sequel trilogy to Star Wars was badly mishandled.

She started off just fine. Sure, her backstory and skills were hand-waved but not totally unbelievable. I’ve seen bitching about her random piloting and mechanics and fighting skills, but she grew up on Jakku a junker planet and I’m willing to presume she found an old flight sim that gave her the skills to fly.

Rey had a lot going for her and her nearly winning against a badly wounded Kylo was slightly “eh” in reflection but he was already wounded and had worn himself out fighting Finn so I’m also willing to hand-wave that off too.

Rey started to go wrong whenever those in charge of the movies defined her in relation to three male characters instead of being defined for herself by herself.

I’m going to go in order of the amount this definition from least to most. Starting with Luke Skywalker.

Since he doesn’t really get to teach her much of anything (beyond some exposition dump on why Kylo Ren is a raging dumpster fire and why he was hiding out on Ach-Toh) Rey’s whole journey to find him was part of her “goal” for episode 8 (and finding him was the Death Star Plans for Episode 7). All Luke serves as definition for Rey is the past/example for her in what she could do and what not to do. (They did Luke and Leia so dirty in these films but Luke far more so than Leia).

Now let’s move onto the worst decision they made with 9 and Rey’s definition as a character by looking at her “grandfather” Palpatine (quotations used because of her father being Palpatine’s clone).

Firstly, I hate that they brought him back as a physical being and not as a Sith Ghost. Him being alive negates Episode 6 and Anakin’s sacrifice and ruins the most poignant part of the whole Saga (well more so than adding that stupid “No. NOOOOOOOOO!” to that scene. It was better with Vader silent).

Secondly, now instead of Rey being a strong Force Sensitive, she’s only strong because her “grandfather” was Darth Sidious. I get it, Luke was strong because his father was Darth Vader but he also had the whole Vader was the Chosen One thing going for his family lineage too.

Rey didn’t need this.

It would have been perfectly fine for her to have actually come from “no one” since Anakin/Vader did so too. Making her a Palpatine just turned her from “Rey daughter of no one” to “Rey Granddaughter of Palpatine.” Once again, instead of making her stand on her own as a character, she was just connected to a male character

And now onto the character she was tied to-literally-the most: Kylo Ren

Now, the way they set up Rey vs Kylo in 7 was fine. It looked to be hero vs nemesis. Kylo Ren as the evil Rey would train to put down.

Then they made her part of this stupid force bond with him culminating with him TELLING HER she was daughter of no one in 8 instead her finding that out for herself and then he is also the one to tell her that they’re a “force diad.”

See my problem here? Two of Rey’s key defining character moments weren’t discovered by her they were TOLD to her by Kylo Ren.

How much more impactful would it have been for Rey in 8 to see her parents weren’t special for herself? How much more impactful would it have been for her to figure out her connection to Kylo after actually studying the Force and its ways on her own instead of -once again- Kylo telling it to her.

I understand the need to connect your main protagonist to your main antagonist of the trilogy in light and dark parallel but there are FAR better ways to do it than having the villain tell the hero EVERYTHING about themself.

e.g. It would be as if Lex Luthor was the one to tell Superman about Krypton and his powers instead of a recording/hologram of Jor-El and Clark finding out about his powers on his own.

Worse still, Rey’s whole character “arc” is warped in service of Kylo Ren and his “arc” (if you can call waffling between good and evil an arc). Rey’s character “traits” are just who she is in relation to other characters and what started off as her story became almost a second fiddle to what was going on with Kylo Ren/Ben Solo.

Say what you will about the Prequel Trilogy (and it’s horrible dialogue), at least it chose a story and characters to focus on from the first film until the third and didn’t zigzag so sloppily as the Disney Trilogy did.

Because they zigzagged, Rey suffered and everything she was ended up being twisted in service of Kylo Ren’s “redemption” (which he promptly died following) instead of it being her own journey of SELF discovery.

Rey deserved better.

If I still have steam after I post this, I will rant about how my favorite sequel character was done so so dirty.

AKA Me vs the Character Assassination of Finn.

#rant #personal opinion

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