#Navani and Evi deserved so much better :((((((

[mushimallo]

Art dump of some young Kholins

[kudriaken]

I am currently drawing fanarts of the Stormlight Archive series. And since the main content is still in work, I want to share a few sketches. I drew them after reading Dalinar`s flashbacks. I love Evi so much, this woman deserved better. But Navani and Ialai also seemed very interesting to me, so I decided to make small sketches of the most important ladies in Alethkar.  I think that from description in the books, Evi did`nt have such fluffy hair, but that is what appeared in my head when I read the scene where Dalinar meets Evi, and it seemed like her hair glowed. So probably very far from canon designs, but just my interpretation. 

[koravelliumavast]

Casualties of Round one. There are slight spoilers here so be wary.

Cosmere Sexyman

Despite Lightsong doing nothing to deserve it; he somehow managed to defeat Hobo god, Vasher. (Ok maybe Lightsong did a thing or two)

He may be a Herald, but Jezrian was no match for Dalinar Kholin and his nice ass

Sadly, Dockson is out. Maybe we can blame it on Kelsiers charisma (because we all know that he wouldn’t have as many followers if he wasn’t hot)

Maybe it was his abilities to see the future or maybe it’s not that, but Renarin was able to quite easily secure his spot on the board and defeat Rayse.

Sure Wayne might have a thing for hats, but Elend has an all white outfit and likes to read. He made his way to the top taking Mistborn era 2’s chances of having a sexyman with them. It’s ok. There are the ladies.

Just because he’s Mostly Unchained, doesn’t make Moash any less sexy as determined by him beating Nale the herald with the interesting crescent moon shaped scar.

Zellions pure unfuckable energy was just too much for his lover, Szeth son-son-Vallano with the white vans.

Again I do apologize for this, but Raoden is out. But actually him and Adolin are now friends because I say so.

These heralds don’t stand a chance. Especially Ishar against Kaladin “asexual but everyone wants them.” Stormblessed. His raw energy radiating off of the simp list led Kaladin to be the pure winner.

Sure back in the day Gavilar might’ve been hot but he’s also a shitty person and is quite untrustworthy. Surprise, surprise Mraize with his mysterious energy has overcome the former king of Alekthar

It was quite a battle out on bridge four. Old man or (not so) one armed Herdazian. By a small margin, thanks to his cousins, The Lopen was able to move on to the next round. Sorry Teft.

Maybe it’s because Susebron is the god king and therefore magically sexy or maybe it’s because Mistborn era 2 isn’t peoples favorites, but Allik has been pushed off the metaphorical blimp.

Both of them suck, yes, but fun fact! Amaram sucks less than Sadeas becuase Sadeas did not sweep. Tragic, I know.

Taravangian and his unstable mental capacity was not able to handle the heat of Sazed and his two shards. Maybe he just had a dumb day.

The duel of the H’s was not much of a duel and Hoid quickly came to the top over Hrathen. Hoids vibes are better than Hrathen, and I think that put him over the top.

Axies the collector successfully annoyed Lezian the pursuer off of the leaderboard by asking him too many questions about spren. Lezian tried to kill him, but it didn’t work. So he just left to try and pursue others or something.

Cosmere sexyladies

Blushweaver and her very horny energy (don’t deny it. We all read Warbreaker that was a very sexually charged book) outbid Paloma and her great vibes.

Venli and Timbres pulsing were absolutely no match for Jasnah and her beauty and poise and big boobs

Shallan Davar and her art skills were no match for Vivenna and her vibes. Shallan spent too much time sketching to actually pay attention to the sexywoman contest.

As we know, Spy Milfs are absolutely zero match for science Milfs. Therefore ilali got absolutely demolished by Navani.

Lalai is a scribe on Roshar. Meanwhile Vin is an allomancer and her raw talent has made it easy to get past Lalai.

Despite her sister’s vibes and raw energy, Siri has failed to get past Marasi “girl with a gun” Colms.

MeLann has absolute powerful vibes. Since they’re both Kandra, they can take any form they want. However Lessie also went insane and MeLann has not. Therefore MeLann swept the polls

Steris accounts for everything that can possibly happen. She didn’t account for Evi Kholin being a great mother, however. Despite that, Steris has the greatest vibes. Evi sadly has been burned with a small margin of a loss.

Allrienne is too much of a girly girl for Sarenes tall girl fencing energy. Therefore the Sarene sweep had been captivated.

Shan Elariel is a great example of a secretive girlie who has impeccable spy skills. However the living vibes of Cultivation were too much for her spying to handle.

The fused fistfight is the kind that can be fought by icons. Raboniel and Leshwi are both icons. However Lewshi’s heavenly ones vibes are no match for Raboniels science milf energy.

Rysn and Shai are both underrated queens and deserve any and all love. However Shai is no match for the Dawnshard that Rysn holds with in her.

Silence Montane is a dangerous woman, and Cord is an equally dangerous woman, however she cannot live up with her girlfriends Dawnshardic ability.

Aesudan and her crystal monster magical girl transformation is not able to stand up to her relatives loving mother vibes and Hesina swept Aesudan.

Herald vs Shard. Edgli is the shard on Nalthis and her calm, comforting voice isn’t at all able to handle Shalash’s absolute powerful heraldic energy and loses.

Eshonai isn’t as much of a scholar as Khriss and her total scholarly vibes made it difficult to fight. Even with her shardblade, she still cannot fight Khriss’s scholarly skills and Eshonai has lost.

[sapphicspren]

THE KHOLINS, RANKED BY ME

welcome to my incredibly biased, emotion driven ranking of how much I like each Kholin. (I didn't include Shallan bc she is a recent addition)

Jasnah. I have two justifications for this; 1: I am very very gay and Shallan, also being gay, gives my brain lots of descriptions of how pretty and beautiful and perfect Jasnah is.

Navani!!! I actually hated Navani in WoK, but now she's my second favorite Kholin. She is badass and loving and smart and I love her arc in RoW (even if she does kind of create a weapon of mass destruction. It happens)

Adolin. He is golden retriever boy, ray of sunshine, we do not deserve him. It is physically impossible to not love Adolin. Unfortunately, he does not exude girlboss energy, and so is stuck in third place.

Renarin. Renarin doesn't get as much page time as he deserves!!! I want more Renarin! Big fan of the autism rep and his identity struggle. Plus, his Radiant powers are SO COOL and I want to learn more about them!

Evi. Eviiiiiiiiiii. She makes me cry. She did not deserve all the shit that happened to her and she was doing her best to be a good Alethi wife, and she was an incredible mother and I love her.

Dalinar. Yeah, he was an absolutely shitty person originally, but his willingness to accept his mistakes and try to make reparations and be better moving forward is inspiring to me.

Aesudan. I wish we saw more of her! I love her Alethi ambition and relationship with the Unmade. Aesudan novella WHEN.

Gavinor. baby. I have theories about him, but that’s for another post. For now, he’s very cute and has done nothing problematic (unlike most of my favorite Kholins)

Elhokar. I just feel like I would hate him in real life. Our personalities would clash SO MUCH and he’s annoying. OB Elhokar is fine I guess, but his self deprecation would get old very quickly.

And last but not least, the true crem of the crop (wow I am so funny), Gavilar. Ew. No one likes Gavilar, especially me after he disrespected/ abused Navani. The man had some good ideas, but I still hate him.

[isdalinarhot]

Dalinar, Elhokar, Renarin

oh boy the big three. this is LONG so i am putting it under the cut

Dalinar:

sexuality headcanon: he is bisexual babey! but he is very much repressed and confused about being into dudes

gender headcanon: this is a cis man. this guy has never had a gender crisis in his life.

a ship i have with said character: fuck idk hes not really shippable. i think he had a one night stand with sadeas in his youth like everyone else in the fandom does. i have an au in my head that i will NEVER talk about where basically my self insert and dalinar are bathumpin. i think he lusts after random soldiers during his loveless marriage with evi. idk im very much of the opinion that in canon dlainar should never get a s/o cuz he sucks at romantic relationshiops and he doesn't really deserve a gf or a bf or anything because he has to work on himself first

a brotp i have with said character: this is so funny does dalinar have friends besides the og war criminal squad and like. havar. ah toh how could it have been a party without you. i think dalinar and navani would have ruled if they were friends like i do not want to see elhokar's mom getting as narsty as brand sand will allow with dalinar but i do want to see them strategizing together you know. why did they have to kiss.

a notp i have with said character: Ⅰ. HATE. DALINAR/KALADIN. WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT. i also. dont like dalivani but it doesnt disgust me at the moral level dalinar/kaladin does it just makes me go wow you really are fucking your dead brother's wife huh. we really do have to read paragraphs upon paragraphs about how much of a sexy milf navani is huh.

a random headcanon: before writing oathbringer he is encouraged by like. navani. to write poems to practice like idk handwriting and creative thought or whatever the hell. and so he writes poems. but theyre all really bad and they all rhyme but have really bad rhythm. they are never published but jasnah has them in whatever the roshar equivalent of a manila folder in a file cabinet is and she looks at them for inspiration when she's stuck writing another ketek for a wedding and has poet's block because it reminds her that at least she's a better poet than her uncle

general opinion over said character: dalinar is in a very frustrating place in my brain because there are very few people who share the view that he is like. doing the best he can but also like. hes not doing enough. like both can be true at the same time. and like i either see people like DALINAR SO SEXY heart eyes emoji who cares that he killed all those people and was a terrible husband. or people who are like. dalinar sucks so in my fan content i am going to make him suck in ways that he doesnt actually suck in canon because hes never done a kind thing in his life right. and both are like sandpaper to my brain but in different ways. dalinar is great but i dont trust people with him yknow

Elhokar:

sexuality headcanon: homosexual elhokar kholin. this guy is gay. this guy is the twink of a lifetime.

gender headcanon: i think it would be fun if he was genderfluid like he propbably would figure that out if he lived and was doing lightweavery things

a ship i have with said character: CAN YOU REALLY SHIP ELHOKAR WITH ANYONE⁇⁇⁇⁇⁇⁇ he doesnt really. he doesnt really have romantic chemistry with like. anyone. hes gay but nobody wants him. i think there is something to be said about him possibly having a VERY UNREQUITED thing for kaladin but room temp milk is something that i do not even pretend to comprehend. i think he's more of a "have brief quiet flings with dudes" sort of guy. i like elhokar/hoid due to tomodachi life. and i like elhokar/elliot decker also due to tomodachi life. idk. i dont really ship elhokar w anyone

a brotp i have with said character: I LOVE THE CONCEPT OF THE KHOLIN COUSINS ALL BEING VERY GOOD FRIENDS WITH EACH OTHER like obviously i like the concept of he and jasnah actually having a sibling relationship that we see and i like the concept of him and adolin being flashy bastards that get into arguments about being flashy bastards and i like the concept of him and renarin being like. surprisingly close just cuz they both have the Liking Men thing going on yknow. it is very important to me. like i know logically the kholin cousins would not all be super close to each other because there's a 15 year gap between jasnah and renarin and even the 4 year gap between elhokar and adolin is pretty big when you're a kid but i want to believe. also honorable mention for younger aesudan and elhokar being bros jess your brain is so huge

a notp i have with said character: whoever that person is who did one chapter of a moash/elhokar fic on ao3 i would love to study you

a random headcanon: elhokar naturally sits like with one leg crossed over the other but when hes in public he sits up straight and manspreads to try to project a kingly posture

general opinion i have over said character: this is ANOTHER character that nobody gets right. like everyone is either ike ELHOKAR MY LITTLE BEAN he did nothing wrong <3 or theyre like FUCK ELHOKAR FOR DOING LIKE 2 BAD THINGS oh by the way here's my favorite character who did nothing wrong and their favorite is like. dalinar or raboniel or some shit. my friends are the only ones who know and perceive the truth

Renarin:

sexuality headcanon: gay :)

gender headcanon: i think it would be fun if he had a case of the masc aligned nonbinaries. he/they renarin. this is the future we want

a ship i have with said character: literally rlainarin is so good. i dont usually read fanfiction but sometimes when im feeling sad i read rlain/renarin fic because love is real

a brotp i have with said character: see elhokar's section on kholin cousins ALSO. i think it's really important that he's friends with people in bridge four. a group of frat boys is something that can be so personal

a notp i have with said character: i started reading the books like at the same time renarin was confirmed to have a crush on rlain so every ship i see that's not that makes my brain go [doug dimmadome voice] not right! special anti-shoutout to renarin/shallan though. hatred violence.

a random headcanon: the reason he's so knowledgeable on wine is because of him spending his preteens and early teen years buying dalinar wine to earn his love :(

general opinion of said character: RENARIN IS SO GOOD. literally the power of renarin is that i have never in my life ever seen anyone who hates renarin EVER. everyone is always like renarin is a good boy :) i will say that people infantalize him a lot and i fell into this trap partially because i thought he was like 16 or 17 because i thought adolin was like 19 or 20 so id say shit like oh i want to help him study for the sat i want to go to his band concerts. nah he is 19 in twok that is an entire adult. also i think he should go just a little bit apeshit at some point i think he should be a little bit mad at dalinar. renarin rights

[lisasstars]

Ok I have finished Oathbringer… one word to sum it up… PHENOMENAL!! ❤️

My thoughts: Spoiler free!

Brandon Sanderson is incredible of making amazing worlds and such intriguing well developed plot and characters. The plot is so intricate and layered, with so many secrets that when you discover one secret another secret is formed waiting to be revealed.

So much happens in the book that you feel like your on a rollercoaster but is well balanced as there are moments of conversation and development of characters that break in between the action to slow down one scene to then focus on another one.

Characters:

Dalinar Kholin: I love Dalinar! He is such a well developed character and I adored finding out about his life back in his youth and how much he has changed as the tyrant he was into the man he has become. His life was filled with sorrow and pain, but I found it all so intriguing as there was light in his life and I think this book really emphasises on the point that even though there is tragedy in one’s life there is also hope and the ability to carry on. I felt really sorry for the people in his life back in his youth and how his actions made them feel, yet still saw the good in him despite his bloodthirsty behaviour. Dalinar has been on journey of finding himself through his past and how his past has moulded him into the man he is today and how he has accepted the pain and his actions he did to carry on the journey he is still going on.

Kaladin Stormblessed: I love Kaladin! What I love about Kaladin is his ability to carry on and protect his people, especially Bridge Four. His determination is admirable and inspiring. I adore seeing him soar and be one with the sky and winds; it’s delightful seeing him feel content and smiling in the skies. His journey is incredible and seeing him come into this new power and the authority that has been given to him is amazing because he truly deserves it. Anytime he feels that he has failed or feel that a death is his fault breaks my heart because he burdens himself with every life with no consideration to his own as he wants to protect everyone. I loved Syl always being there for him and act as a constant being in his life; someone he can depend on and help him when he needs the help. I absolutely loved all the interactions with Bridge Four and how each one helps one another and Kaladin having people looking out for him and in turn he looks out and after them. Bridge Four is built on togetherness and hope; helping each other regardless of past doings and coming through it as together as a family.

Shallan Davar: I love Shallan! It’s heartbreaking to see her personality cracking and the layers coming undone as she has built up such a defence in her mind to warrant her past from leaking out and affecting her, yet the cracks have formed and it’s effecting her, making her confused and troubled. It’s clever how Sanderson intertwines the personalities making them appear completely different people as there are yet are one at the same time. I hope Shallan can talk about her past and can see her heal because she needs to confront things and not let it consume her, while also believing she deserves to be happy and to not blame herself or make her believe she deserved the wrongs in her life. I loved her quips and her ability to smile regardless of everything going on, even if it’s not so good to pretend all the time that’s everything is okay when sometimes it’s alright for things not to be. Her interactions with Kaladin are funny as they understand one another and know and can help each other, with the helps of puns. Her interactions with Adolin are so cute and I loved that he saw her, Shallan, not her other personalities and that he is someone who she can depend on and to ground her and bring her back to the real her not the ones she has created.

Adolin Kholin: I love Adolin! He is such a compassionate, loyal, loving character who wants to help in anyway he can and be there for the people he cares about. He doesn’t judge anyone regardless of their station or who they are and cares and protects those who need help. I love seeing his friendship grow with Kaladin and seeing them care for one another and Adolin knowing when something is up and tries to help him by getting Kaladin to talk and open up. I really loved seeing Adolin being vulnerable and appear uncertain because it showed that he isn’t always the confident, happy go lucky person he appears to be; that he does have vulnerabilities and does worry about his place in the world, especially with Shallan as she is a Radiant. I adored his interactions with Shallan as they are so cute and funny together. His ability to make her feel safe and grounded is adorable because he acts as a focus to her and someone who doesn’t judge but cares for her and to let her talk to him in her own time without pushing her into talking. I love how he knows the difference between Shallan and the other personalities, Veil and Radiant, and loves Shallan and brings her back to the present.

Honourable mentions:

Renarin Kholin: Love him! I feel so sorry for him yet love how he is embracing himself and finding his place in the world with the support from Bridge Four and his family.

Jasnah Kholin: I love her ability to stand up for herself and take no nonsense from anyone and embracing herself and her beliefs yet cares and fights for her family.

Navani Kholin: I really love the authority and the ability to take charge or situations and to remain care and collected in a logical yet protective way especially towards Dalinar and her family.

Evi Kholin: I felt so sorry for her and the life she has lead as she is a pure loving soul who only wants peace for the world and her family, yet circumstances made it not possible for her.

Bridge Four: I love all the members and it was really great hearing from some of their perspectives. They make me laugh and cry for them; both separately and together.

Elhokar Kholin: I loved how he accepted his mistakes and wanted to change them and make himself a better man for himself, the kingdom and his family.

Lift: I love her. She makes me laugh with her non-filter dialogue and how she says it how it is with no consideration to how the words appear to everyone else.

Szeth: I love seeing him grow and try to make up wrong doings by helping the people who need the help, even if he is plagued by his own thoughts and nightmares of his past.

Wit: I love Wit and how he comes up with silly stories that hold actual truths and tries to help people along the way with his odd way by speaking advice clouded in a mix of riddles and tales. I loved seeing him help Shallan and giving her hug, to just be there to let her cry and let her emotions and feelings come bare and give her advice to help and heal her.

Venli: I really liked seeing her perspective on the “enemy” side and how she feels about the treatment of her people and where she fits in in all the chaos of the war.

In conclusion, I loved Oathbringer because it rang with hope and the ability to change and be there for the people you love. Through the strength of love and togetherness. Brandon Sanderson is exceptional of creating a complex plot that doesn’t overpower or overshadow the characters and vice versa. The story and description is so detailed that it makes you believe you are actually there and living the world and the characters’s lives. Despite being over 1000 pages long I found myself wanting more and more because I never wanted it to end. Truly incredible!! 💕💕

No spoilers for the next book, Rhythm Of War, please. Thank you!

How I feel about the book. 👇👇 AMAZING!!! ♥️

[preservationandruin]

Moods of Reading Oathbringer

Collected from me and @murderandcoffee screaming throughout the course of the book. Completely separate from my actually intelligent screaming in the liveblogs/

Gavilar I was willing to like you and then you went and trashed it in your literal first real scene

LET! SYL! SAY! FUCK!

Kal is Too Perfect and its Not Fair

MY PARENTS ARE  M A R R I E D

LIRIN CALLED KALADIN HIS LITTLE BOY

KALADIN! PUNCHED! ROSHONE! FUCK YES!

I trust DALINAR just not his OPINIONS OF PEOPLE

on this episode of Stormlight Archives: Syl tells Kaladin he needs to get laid

I love my dad but I hate my dad's past self

NO!!!! DALINAR! DOES! NOT! NEED! KING! TARAVANGIAN! ANYWHERE! NEAR! HIM! FUCK!!!!!!

SHALLAN AND ADOLIN'S DYNAMIC IS SO GOOD

I love my current dad but sometimes in flashbacks I m 500000% willing to fistfight the Blackthorn with my bare hands

DALINAR! REMEMBERS! HIS! WIFE!

AMARAM AND JASNAH ARE IN THE SAME SCENE AND SHE IS ROASTING HIM ALIVE GOD FUCKING BLESS

WHERE THE FUCK IS URITHIRU'S WATER COMING FROM

me, hugging Renarin and Adolin: MY TWO SPECIAL BOYS

IALAI! IS! GIVING! THE! SADEAS! TITLE! TO! AMARAM! I'M! GOING! TO! SHIT!

JASNAH'S BACK JASNAH'S BACK  JASNAH'S BACK JASNAH'S BACK JASNAH'S BACK JASNAH'S BACK JASNAH'S BACK  JASNAH'S BACK JASNAH'S BACK JASNAH'S BACK JASNAH'S BACK JASNAH'S BACK  JASNAH'S BACK JASNAH'S BACK JASNAH'S BACK

KALADIN IS DOING MORNING PUSH-UPS I HATE THIS MAN

@ Brandon what have you done to me

Lift??? just told Dalinar he has a nice, "tight" butt?????? I'm fucking shitting?????????????????

sometimes I forget that Elhokar has been lectured by Lopen's mom and then I remember and my day gets so much better

Elhokar is a Gryffindor but one with an identity crisis and the world's worst impulse control

Shallan is the human embodiment of that "good luck I'm behind 7 proxies" meme

oh dear jesus dalinar (in the present) is trying to pick a fight why is he like this

midwife: hands newborn Adolin to Dalinar Dalinar: LION KING POSE, HAPPY YELLING

christ, young Dalinar did not deserve Evi

THESE DRAMATIC KHOLIN MEN WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME

HIGHMARSHAL AZURE JUST SAID “LIKE WHITE ON BLACK”

I didn’t expect Wit and Shallan to have the relationship they do, but I really appreciate it.

Adolin cares so much about things like people and spren and horses and swords and I love him

Dalinar better have fucking apologized to Renarin. A hundred times. I honestly do want to go back and fistfight young Dalinar

also, Adolin just gave Kaladin the Bridge Four salute I LOVE THESE BOYS

ok so I forgot that Nightblood would be there in Szeth chapters now and holy shit I love my shitty magic sword child

GOD DAMN IT MOASH

HOW DARE HE GIVE THE FUCKING BRIDGE FOUR SALUTE TO KALADIN

I WANTED A MOASH REDEMPTION ARC BUT FUCKING HELL THIS IS WHAT I GOT

don't think about elhokar and shallan being the weirdest lightweaving buddies. also don't think about elhokar making a disguise so he can sneak out and actually just be a normal person for a while

I want to date SO MANY OF THESE CHARACTERS

hey uhhhhhhhhhhhhh FUCK Taravangian

half of the cast has a type and that type is "kaladin" 

I feel like with the Kaladin-Adolin-Shallan trio of people, whenever two of them are fine and stable, the other is bound to be launching themselves headfirst into Drama

I! LOVE! RYSN!

fucking motherfucker Brandon putting nine viewpoints in this part like an ASSHOLE

how does Brandon manage a setup like this EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN BOOK

FUCK! MOASH!

I AM SHITTINGMYSELF OHMYHDOOHMYGODMOHMYDHODHKSKSK

okay okay okay okay I Adore Shallan

Cultivation: god fucking dammit honor you DIE AND LEAVE ME TO DEAL WITH YOUR WEIRD KISMESSESSITUDE CHILDREN

I'm gonna cry, all of these characters have come so far and I'm so proud of them

JASNAH IS SUMMONING HER SHARDBLADE NOO NO NO NO NO

of fuckin course Odium has to appear as a gold and white parshman god forbid he look like a normal fuckin parshman this pretentious asshole

fucking Moash asshole I BELIEVED IN HIM

FUCK ME THE TITLE OF THE NEXT ONE  IS CHAMPION WITH NINE SHADOWS

Dalinar hauling The Way of Kings around for this whole battle is way too funny

I trust nothing and no one in this world

IM GONNA SHIT GOD DAMMIT KALADIN

Meanwhile,  Kaladin is apparently drowning in beads, of fucking course God forbid this trio keep their shit together for more than three seconds

Wyndle has to deal with So Much

SZETH!!!!!! RENARIN!!!!!! KALADIN!!!!!!! D A D

DON'T TOUCH MY DAD!!!

HOLY SHIT, NAVANI, I SEE WHERE JASNAH GETS HER STONE-COLD DETERMINATION FROM

is amaram about to eat a fucking rock

DALINAR FUCKING STAPLED ALL THREE REALMS TOGETHER AND REOPENED HONOR'S PERPENDUCULARITY

amaram vored a magic rock to fight kaladin better. great.

LET! NIGHTBLOOD! SAY! FUCK!

SHE TOLD HIM HER NAME. MAYALARAN

AMARAM IS LITERALLY HALF-CRUSTACEAN AND GLOWING WITH VOIDLIGHT AND HE'S STILL TALKING ABOUT HONOR

ADOLIN TRIED TO STEP BACK TO "LET KALADIN HAVE SHALLAN" ASFONSDOFINAOFEDGVKSKJDNG:KB

WHAT THE FUCK MOASH

LOPEN ACCIDENTALLY SWORE THE SECOND IDEAL AND PUT OUT ALL THE LIGHTS IN THE SURGEON"S TENT FUCK

LET! RUA! SAY! FUCK!

oh my god Veil and Adolin are DRINKING BUDDIES

THAT'S WHO VYRE IS. FUCK

some tiny part of me is so happy that Dalinar's having pronoun problems when trying to write about himself because WHAT A NONBINARY RELATEABLE FEEL

Kholin women are ice-cold competent ladies and Shallan is joining a proud tradition of women who seem like nerds and are revealed to be stone-cold pragmatists with their backs against the wall

JASNAH AND DALINAR'S RELATIONSHIP MEANS SO MUCH TO ME

Adolin needs to get control of his fucking illiteracy

Adolin and Gavinor are the only two illiterate Kholins now and Gavinor has the excuse of being THREE

Venli is 'bout to be running the longest fucking scam on Odium

[nightblink]

Blink Reads Oathbringer - Chapters 94-99

In which I yell about many things, from Dalinar to worldhoppers, and go on a semi-long rant about how Syl is severely misunderstanding Kaladin’s need for emotional intimacy.

Also, fyi, this Best of Dark Souls Series Soundtrack��mix is A+ atmosphere for the whole of Part Four thus far.

Chapter Ninety-Four – A Small Bottle

Another sketch-page before the chapter, this time detailing Types of Vorin Wines. Thank you Sanderson for giving us these little worldbuilding tidbits~

[winces] Seven years ago, and Dalinar was an angry stumbling mess of an addicted, alcoholic drunkard. He's not even functional.

They discovered the Parshendi on that hunting trip and Dalinar still hasn't been to see the Nightwatcher? Daaamn, that trip was a lot later after Evi died than I'd previously imagined. Dalinar's trying to suppress an absurd amount of self-loathing under all that drinking and it's tearing him apart – he was psuedo-functional on the trip but it just reminded him of being the Blackthorn so much that he's basically trying to drown out all memory of that now too

!!! Adolin and Renarin were both on the trip where the Alethi came across the Parshendi!

'Her hair. Her judgmental eyes.' How much of your anger and guilt and self-hatred have you been taking out on your sons, Dalinar.

...you did not just fucking refer to Renarin, your own son, as 'the invalid'. You… ooooo, but I want to STRANGLE you right about now. And then you scream at them on top of that?

Oh, Renarin. First coming back, facing him, giving him the bottle, and then pulling him in for a hug. Dalinar, you think 'timid', but what the hell is braver than what your son is doing right now, huh?

Dalinar… Dalinar practically hated his sons - for how much they reminded him of Evi, for how much they cared - during the worst stages of his grief and alcoholism. Good god. It’s no wonder that this entire family is broken right through to the core.

'Why hadn't the boys learned to hate him back? They should hate him. He deserved to be hated.' This is the realization, isn't it. This is the turning point that finally tipped you over the edge into deciding to visit the Nightwatcher – the love of your sons, the way that Renarin (brave, unshaken Renarin) holds you as you cry.

Chapter Ninety-Five – Inescapable Void

Well that's not an ominous chapter title at all. :|

“the powers of all Surges compounded in one” sounds like one of the most terrifying concepts in the Cosmere. There's a reason that there's no Radiants with all the Surges like there are Mistborn with the ability to burn all metals – they're already too disgustingly OP. To think that there might be an Unmade with all the Surges compounded? Uhhhhh, wh a t. Also what's this about swallowing a gemstone to- wait. Wait. Yelig-nar was the one that Aesudan said “serves me”. Fuuuuck fuck fuckity fuck-

Kaladin is a seething pot of barely-contained emotion right now, even moreso than usual, which is saying something. It's no wonder he's attracting angerspren – he feels that he's abandoning people that he should be protecting, down to the last breath, if need be, and that feeling's only heightened by the fact that they fled from a scene where he couldn't save anyone.

Shallan's too mentally and emotionally exhausted to devote energy to feeling much right about now, and Adolin's in full 'Grieve later. Keep moving. Reach the next goal.' mode. To Kaladin, it doesn't look like they care because they're not outwardly showing any hurt, and that just makes him angrier-

And he's holding onto that even if he knows he's wrong. Because his depression is coming back with a forceful vengeance, and The Wretch is a looming grey fog in the back of his mind just waiting to consume him. 'Life going well? The darkness would whisper that he was only setting himself up for a bigger fall. Shallan glances at Adolin? They must be whispering about him. Dalinar sends him to protect Elhokar? The highprince must want to get rid of Kaladin.' I… shit. Those two lines are a punch in the gut, that is e x a c t l y what it feels like; no matter how much you try to logically convince yourself otherwise, it doesn't matter, because the numbness and the grey and the loneliness are all too overwhelming… damn, I need a moment.

Kaladin, it wasn't your fault. His death wasn't your fault.

'There was an insufferable spring to his step, like he was actually excited by this terrible place.' Oh, Kaladin, how utterly and absolutely wrong you are…

'Awful, terrifying perspective. He could see too many sides.' How to protect people when they're all intent on killing each other, goals diametrically opposed? No good answer. I'll bet his agony over this is going to feed into his next Oath as a Radiant, like his realization over Elhokar did in the last book.

Huh. Shadesmar has Actual Plant Life. Why, and how?

This place, with its eternally dark sky, is far too like the feel of his depression for Kaladin to fight back against the Wretch of his depression right now.

I'm trying to decide whether the continual referral to the spren of Adolin's sword as Adolin's spren is for sheer convenience and writing flow, red herring, or if it's actually hinting at something. Knowing Sanderson, it could be any of those.

Note: the city of the Honorspren was/is “far to the west”

!!! Syl was bonded before?! So, she was 'born' just before the Recreance, and barely had time to really know her bonded before he died. She 'wasn't ready' for the bond – too young, perhaps, even as spren measure these things (however they measure it).

“Spren normally weather the death of their Radiant...” ORLY.

So Syl was asleep for about a thousand years, then lived in the city of the Honorspren for aroud three thousand before she “heard” the call of Kaladin's emotions and left to find him – and it was specifically him that she left (snuck away from) Shadesmar for.

“I suppose the wind is always there somewhere, so they don't fade like passions do.” ….that's important. She's referring to 'passions' like 'emotions', but the fact that that specific word was used is significant in its choice.

Chapter Ninety-Six – Pieces of a Fabrial

That's not a POV-indicator-symbol that we've seen before.

“Yelig-nar is said to consume souls” uhhhhh, that's not good, even if it turns out to be inaccurate in the details

NAVANI IT'S A NAVANI CHAPTER oh yes good this is good, we'll get a perspective on Urithiru right now that's not Dalinar's, and maybe even a peek from the outside at Dalinar himself

Cultural note: 'On the day of the first meeting of monarchs at Urithiru, Navani made each person – no matter how important – carry their own chair. The old Alethi tradition symbolized each chief bringing important wisdom to a gathering.”

Of course Dalinar just tried to bring a stool. That's quintessential Dalinar right there.

Oh shit oh shiiiiit – she'd once been told that Jasnah was dead, but then Jasnah returned… there's not going to be the same conclusion for Elhokar. He's very definitely dead, and even if Navani hears of it, she'll still probably hold out hope. She'll keep on hoping for longer than healthy, I'll bet, because if she was proven wrong once then why can't her denial be right this time as well…

LOPEN. LOPEN OH MY GOD I'M CACKLING.

Bridge Four is convinced that Kaladin's disappearance is nothing more than a minor setback, and what reason do they have to believe otherwise? He's never really shared his breakdowns or deeper insecurities with the rest of them – or ever intentionally shared them at all – and he's always come back after getting knocked down. There's no reason they shouldn't be optimistic, for all they know.

Poor Gawx, having to sit in a meeting like this before all the heads of state; he's at least gotten a bit of experience under his belt, but he's still woefully outclassed.

Renarin. Oh man, you don't look like you're taking Adolin's disappearance well. HAH JASNAH BROUGHT A STOOL WHEN DALINAR COULDN'T. It is padded though; she at least gives more thought to comfort than he does. But where are Sebarial and Palona?

Ooooo, Ialai. Deliberately thumbing her nose at both Navani's order – Kholin orders – and the chair-tradition itself. Is she planning something specific at the moment, or just subtly displaying her refusal of respect?

[hums] So Navani realizes that she and everyone else still think of Malata as Taravangian's; that's good. We haven't seen any indication of her working as “Dalinar's” Radiant at all. Though she's sometimes worked the Oathgate, she hasn't actually worked her way in amongst the rest of the Radiants, and all we've seen of her is a small glimpse when she spoke to Shallan. Otherwise, she's still an enigma.

Lift is beating Rock in an eating contest. You go girl; show him how it's done.

Navani, Dalinar is probably not capable of leading the meeting at this point in time. It's terrible timing, but that can't be helped. You're the Dowager Queen, you can do this.

Ffffffft, Sebarial and Palona-

SEBARIAL PLZ

Note: Navani is fluent in Azish.

Hoooo boy, and we're immediately knee-deep in Politics. Emul wants the threat from Tukar gone and the awakened Parshmen back under their control, Gawx/Azir is in over his head, Tashikk wants to discuss regulation of the Oathgates, Natan would like the Gate on the Shattered Plains now please and the Alethi out, Thaylenah wants “free” (favorable for them) trade, Yezier wants- wait what do you mean Iri and Rira “seem to have fallen in with the enemy”? Do you mean the Tukari God-King, or Odium? I can only imagine it's the former.

Who knows where the tech for half-Shards is at right now or how/how quickly they can make them – they'd give an enormous edge against the Unmade, but production is probably not viable at the moment for use in the armies.

Yeaaaah, you have way better tech now, since you've actually have the time after Aharietiam to settle down and invent things without being plunged into Desolation after Desolation.

…. “Abandoned.” He's not wrong. The Radiants did abandon them all, their duty, and their bonded spren. Dalinar swears it won't be the same, but precedent tells them otherwise, and what reason have they to trust these Radiants and the awesome powers that they now wield?

IALAI. GODDAMN IT. [drags hands down face] YOU COMPLETELY AND EFFORTLESSLY NUDGED THE CONVERSATION IN SUCH A WAY AS TO DISCREDIT WHAT DALINAR AND NAVANI ARE ACTUALLY TRYING TO DO.

She's very, very good at what she does, you have to admit.

And now the whole thing is degrading down into arguments and thrown barbs. Thankfully, Navani's got this. Years as Queen and negotiating/maneuvering through social situations has prepared her, and she's got the sort of analytic mind that can turn such a gathering into a Problem To Be Solved.

A Problem To Be Solved by each nation playing to their strengths: Azish organization – she's right, they'll all need a common set of laws to work under if they're all going to work together in this sort of unity; international trade to the Thaylen government (no matter how much Sebarial may choke on his snacks over that decision); and the Alethi… “Well, we do excel at one thing.” Very true. Generals and armies it is.

So it's the Fused that have Iri, as well as bases of power in Marat and Alethkar.

So they've locked the Kholinar Oathgate from Urithiru – no chance of the four lost in Shadesmar to get through to Urithiru using the Kholinar Gate somehow, then, even if they did manage to un-Corrupt the Gatespren.

[breaths out] Azir agreeing to send help is a huge show of solidarity as well as perhaps even a burgeoning trust – or, at the very least, respect. This alliance between the major nations might actually have a chance of working. I'm still leery, as this has the chance to go very, very badly, but… there's a chance.

You… you don't need the Blackthorn, Navani. Nobody needs the Blackthorn (and you really shouldn't want him either) – you need Dalinar Kholin. Problem is, he's… broken. Like the rest of the Radiants. He'll never be ““fixed””, but he can take a step forward again. He's just not there yet, not with what he's newly remembered.

Chapter Ninety-Seven – Riino

“Of the Unmade, Sja-Anat was most feared by the Radiants.” Um, fuck? F u ck? And the entry says that she can only corrupt 'lesser' spren, but considering the fact that she's corrupted the Oathgate-spren, she's very likely grown stronger in the intervening years.

Psuedo-flashback for Kaladin again – '[He] remembered holding a dying woman's hand.” Who had gotten caught in what's essentially a bear trap as he tried to lead a slave escape. This is not boding well for his state of mind.

'What other simple, stable parts of his life were complete lies?' It's not that it's technically a lie, it's just that people didn't know enough about spren to be informed, but of course with the way Kaladin's thinking right now, when everything is turned to the negative and he's feeling trapped and along, of course it feels like lies, or the world mocking him.

Ooop, he's been found out. But… it doesn't look bad? Not really? (YET. NO GUARANTEE. SUSPICION AT ALL TIMES RIGHT NOW.)

Even if you were able to wear your Veil-personality right now, Shallan, you and therefore she still know nothing about actual scouting, and Veil's “streetwise-ness” and confidence won't help anything in that regard.

Unlike Kaladin, she might actually have the potential for some measure of healing while they're stuck here in Shadesmar…

“Yeah. Weird stuff.” Syl please. At least you and Pattern seem to be getting along fairly well, as far as things go? From Syl's past descriptions of Cryptics, I'd have thought there'd be more friction between you two.

Mmm, and here's Adolin, making sure she's all right and helping how he feels he can. (The physical contact is probably as much for him as for her, admittedly.)

“He's got battle fatigue, and an objective will help with that.” Mmmmm, yes and no – depression and heavy PTSD are the main factors here, but giving him an 'objective' will at least help a little; not as much as it would someone whose mind works like Adolin's does, though, as we see that Kaladin's scouting just brought up more memories of pain, rather than narrowing to focus on a goal. Either way, keeping an eye on him right now is necessary. The last thing he needs is to be alone on top of feeling alone.

Clothing says a lot about people indeed, and knowing that that's Vivenna… she's Nalthian and probably still has Heightenings, and they go for more saturated shades as a rule. 'Trying to prove something' is spot-on if she hasn't changed too much from how she was in Warbreaker. It's a really good assessment on Adolin's part.

“It didn't fit me anymore.” ….oh. Oh. That's… you're not being literal in the slightest. Damn.

OOOP, CORRUPTED APPROACHING, TIME TO LEAVE

omg the old man's a fortuneteller, and he reads the future from the highstorms. What do those even look like in the Cognitive Realm; does it infuse gems with Investiture like in the Physical Realm? The destructive winds must not be an issue if Azure/Vivenna told them not to worry…

...that old man should really have a “No Touchie” sign on that thing if he doesn't want people to get their fingerprints all over it. Or sucked away into a storm-vision.

A few things in Very Short Order: A) Sja-Anat can speak through her corrupted spren; B) she calls her corruption Enlightening, which is disturbing in and of itself (though really, it sounds like just another instance of The Bad Guys thinking they're In The Right, which, fair); C) there's an informant in Urithiru, but they're not part of Dalinar's inner circle since they passed on the lie that Shallan was an Elsecaller – I can't remember, do Taravangian and Malata know that Shallan's a Lightweaver and not an Elsecaller?; and D) Sja-Anat is still “helping” them, which is weird and I am still very suspicious.

FUUUUUCK, KALADIN'S SEEING A VISION OF THE FUTURE AND IT'S DALINAR IN TROUBLE. At… I think that must be Thaylen City? That'd probably be the only city that fits the description given. GUYS, GUYS YOU'VE GOTTA GET BACK ASAP

[chokes] “Unless...you're Invested. What Heightening are you? No. Something else. Merciful Domi… A Surgebinder? Has it begun again?” uM. UM UM UM. YOU'RE FROM SEL, AND YOU KNOW INVESTED NALTHIANS. AND YOU'RE AWARE THAT ROSHARAN SURGEBINDERS ARE A SIGN THAT SHIT'S ABOUT TO HIT THE FAN.

Haaaaaah, that man's not Shin, Kaladin, even if that's the closest analogue you can think of.

Regarding Wit, nobody's sure what he is.

[SNORTS] Looks like Roshar has yet to invent canning, of all things. That seems like something that would originate from Scadrial.

This time the spren of Adolin's Blade was referred to in that exact manner. Any referral to her as 'Adolin's spren' is probably just for flow of writing, then.

….why didn't you want to come into the lighthouse, Syl? Old memories, a bad feeling?

[winces] Rathalas. The Rift. And Adolin doesn't know the truth of what really happened to his mother there. I'm… I'm actually frightened to see what's going to happen when he does learn the true story.

I was right, it is Thaylen City he saw, and yeah, theoretically they should be able to transfer back via the Oathgate (if they can figure out how) – better to go there than to the Peaks if the danger Kaladin foresaw is slated to happen sooner rather than later. There's also been the insinuation that something weird, even wrong, is happening on the Peaks, so going there might not be the best idea anyway.

And right afterwards Shallan seconds that suspicion about the Peaks. Yeaaaaah. Try for Thaylen City.

[hums] Well, there's a good distraction for him to try to focus on. Protect Dalinar. It won't do much to quell his depression, but it's helping, and he needs all the help he can get right about now.

!!! Those ship-pullers sound REALLY COOL – like giant winged eels, almost! 'Traveling in style' indeed.

Chapter Ninety-Eight – Loopholes

“Abandon a city if the spren start acting weird.' YEAH, WELL, FAILED STEP ONE. Okay, so 'Sja-Anat was often regarded as an individual, when others – like Moelach or Ashertmarn – were seen as forces.' More along the lines of proper sentience rather than the personification/embodiment of a particular force or feeling, like Ashertmarn's Revel.

[sighs] The Desolation is definitely on its way, if not already here, Skybreakers. Gotta wait for that Heraldic Confirmation, though.

SURGEBINDER PAINTBALL. Oh this is gonna be fun

So. Shinovar trains people (warriors?) with the Honorblades – and they have all the rest save for Taln's and Jezrien's? And Szeth was one of them, flying the winds since he was young. Damn, that makes it all the more impressive that Kaladin bested him! Hmm, looks like Honorblades also use more stormlight for the Surges they give than a Radiant of that order would utilise for the same.

For once, in all the time we've seen him, Szeth is enjoying himself. That's nearly a miracle all it's own.

...and then immediately feels guilty for feeling happy.

[amused] Denth was better than Vasher at swordsmanship, sure, but “isn't any good with the sword” is just hilarious when they both had a few thousand(?) years both to hone their skill.

“And nobody should ever let him get too close.” No kidding. Whatever experience these older squires have, they're still up against the man who is/was The Assassin in White.

That's a funny sight right there, though – the graceful arc in front of the last glimmer of sunset, and POOFPOOFPOOF he gets nailed by all those who have dust pouches left. Almost there!…but not quite.

um. UM. Is that.. are those highspren? Slashes in the air, gaps into the void of space?

HAH. Loopholes indeed.

!!! Heyyyy, Nale is back! Where's you go on your retreat away after the craziness in Edgedancer, Nale? And did you find what you were looking for?

“It is time for you to learn the two greatest secrets that I know.” WH A T. TELL US TELL US TELL US-

Chapter Ninety-Nine – Reachers

Sketchpage at the beginning of the chapter is excellent. GIANT FLYING EEL-DRAGON-SPREN FTW – called “mandras” in Shallan's side notes

This 'Nergaoul' sounds like The Thrill, save that it's only the Alethi that are affected,rather than both sides of a single battlefield. Did the Unmade somehow figure out how to transfer its power through human genetics, rather than needing to be in the general area to spread/activate its power?

Back to Shadesmar, and to Kaladin struggling with the suffocating blanket of darkness that his depression is strangling him with.

Lightspren = called Reachers, look like “humans with strange bronze skin”, “metallic, as if they were living statues”. I'm wondering if these spren might have any connection with the Iri(-Riran?) genetic weirdness of metallics

...what the hell is up with Syl? Did she have Shallan Lightweave her? Can she change colour at will as well as shape? Is she trying to make the other spren believe that she's human?

And what's up with the vibrating copper plating on the ship? Some sort of guideline?

“Foreign technology.” I'm betting that orb that the lighthouse-keeper had is some sort of Selish device.

The 'Stone of Ten Dawns'. Kaladin, you mention that like it's supposed to be common knowledge, or at least common mythology. Is this another one of those like the 'Honor's Drop' or whatever-it-was that was mentioned in a chapter header some time ago?

Kaladin apparently doesn't know what condensation is…? Or at least how you can utilize temperature to make it happen. Using such a method to get water is probably a foreign concept on Roshar, considering the highstorms – they don't have any deserts on the planet so far as we can tell.

I'm with Syl on this one, Kaladin, riding one of those flying spren sounds awesome.

“Where's your sense of adventure?” “I dragged it out back and clubbed it senseless for getting me into the army.” KALADIN PLZ (at least he's feeling better enough to snark without much rancor?)

So Syl is under a Lightweaving. Are honorspren really so rare as to attract that much attention – and bad attention at that?

[throws hands into the air] He doesn't need a girlfriend/boyfriend, Syl, he needs a FRIEND. I- you've been sort of getting the hang of human arrangements and emotions but you don't have a good enough grasp on them to understand what your human really needs right about now. Would it be great if he could go and talk to Shallan and start to get to actually know her? YES. That'd be GREAT. But shoving him into a romance that you think he needs, especially as he still has an idealized version of her in his head right now? Bad idea. You're encouraging some of the right things – talking to her – for the wrong reasons/goals.

I love Syl, I really do, but I have issues with how she's been acting throughout much of this book when it comes to Kaladin and interpersonal relationships – not even just with Shallan, but like that time back in Alethkar when she was suggesting he get laid. Kaladin and Syl need to sit down and have a long talk about human relationships/emotions/everything.

[drags hands down face] HE NEEDS A CLOSE FRIENDSHIP WITH SOMEONE WHO ISN'T A SUBORDINATE, SYL. EQUALS. HE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE ROMATICALLY OR PHYSICALLY INTERESTED FOR THAT TO HAPPEN AND FOR HIM TO GET THE EMOTIONAL CLOSENESS HE NEEDS.

Ooo, another mention of the mysterious Tarah – who we still know next to nothing about.

Looks like Shallan knows what condensation is! Makes sense. That must have just been something beyond the scope of Kaladin's learning – though making water that way would be very useful for surgeons, as it's probably the cleanest water they can manage on Roshar, untouched by crem.

Oh noooo, poor seasick Azure-Vivenna…

!!!!! These mandras – the 'luckspren' – they're what allow greatshells to grow to immense size, beyond what even the lower gravity and higher atmospheric oxygen ratio allow? (It's good to see Shallan getting all excited about biology and… spren-ology or whatever it may be called… like she used to, back before she started distinctly splitting personalities to cope with her remembered trauma.)

“I'm mysterious.” “I used to think you were. Then I found out you don't like good puns – it's truly possible to know too much about somebody.” See? See? This banter? You two can become friends, you'd both probably even have fun together – any sort of romantic entanglements need to come far after that though.

Two-ish more days to the city on the Sea (Island) of Spears, then some several more down to Thaylen City – not only is it a longer distance on the map, but they'll have to cross over river-land to get there unless they go around, which makes the journey much, much longer. And there's also the fact that not everyone's on board with the vision he saw and their destination...

That feeling, Kaladin? It's called f r i e n d s h i p. That's why it feels different from your previous, purely-romantic crushes.

I- Kaladin, Kaladin, no. [groans and buries face in hands] I know it might sound nice, especially when the depression is weighing on you like a dark monster on your back, but repression like that is not a good thing. And it's not actually working.

[esseastri]

Megan Reads Oathbringer (part 7)

blerg, I wanted to hit page 500 in the last chunk o’ liveblog, but alas. We continue on. This book is just too dense, the liveblog posts are too long and I will continue to mention that in every one of these posts, ‘cause it’s wild just how much is in here!

Part 7 encompasses pages 476-557 (previous parts)

OOOOOOOH JASNAH POV!!!!

hey, her art bubble is the old Shallan art bubble. that’s...boring. why doesn’t she get her own?

I’m emotional about Taln forever and ever

Jasnah being paranoid about her safety and assassins and stuffing her ventilation shaft with cloths is...so... You don’t expect Jasnah to be scared, but here she is. It makes perfect sense--she got stabbed through the chest, of course she’s scared--but she’s so poised and in control, you just don’t expect it.

OMG Jasnah had back up files of her notes!!! That’s brilliant.

spanreeds are so cool

do we know which type of spren Ivory is? if we do I don’t remember.

just keep reading, Megan, they’ll tell you. Inkspren. ...of course.

also, I’d been wondering how Jasnah was “broken”--since all the Radiants are--and somehow I never expected childhood illness. that’s a logical breaking point, but I never even thought of it.

THERE WAS A JASNAH AND HOID’S MOST EXCELLENT ADVENTURE!!! THERE WAS!!! I’VE BEEN ROBBED!!!

but also, wtf did she learn, what did she learn from him. I’m guessing it’s the same thing the Stormfather refused to tell Dalinar... about all ten orders returning.

god, I really, really hope that my theory about them replacing the Heralds is wrong. I don’t want that. ..

(It’s a good theory though; the first new members of the ten orders all make a new Oathpact at the end of the fifth book. the back five are about their first time breaking and the first Desolation post-this one. It’s awful and I don’t want it, but you gotta admit, it’s an interesting theory, at least in a meta way.)

also I’m sad no one likes the honorspren. Syl is such a good. then again, she’s different than her peeps, she always says.

gaahhh, the Moash chapters are killing me every time I see that patchless shoulder I just die a lil bit inside

“Compared to bridge duty, this was paradise.” I’M CRYING??? This is so, so much the ‘I did that, so I can survive anything’ mentality and I’m cry.

okay, but can all of the Fused use all of the Surges? or do they all do different things? Do they have the equivalent of radiant orders?

(I’m going to be so excited if Moash gets a spren, but I feel like he maybe has to take responsibility for his actions first...)

aaahh Moash is taking the Kaladin route of “I don’t care about these people but storm it, I’m helping them anyway”.

OH SHIT Those are the ones who Kaladin helped, aren’t they... they brought “a false god” that was Kaladin shit shit shit they are getting punished for him. He would die if he knew, oh god.

AAAHH MOASH IS A GOOD “You’re becoming like us” Ohhhh goooddd yep. yep. wow. Be better. Do better. The theme of this book, and I love it. I LOVE MOASH AAHHH

punk!Dalinar not being allowed to fight is wild.

OOOHH THEY DIDN’T TELL HIM HE’S BEEN HURTING PEOPLE?? WHY!!!!?? YOU GOTTA TELL HIM HE’S DESTROYING PEOPLE’S LIVES BY BEING A BLACKOUT DRUNK AND FIGHTING PEOPLE

THAT’S NOT A GOOD THING AND HE SHOULD KNOW THAT

his name means “born unto light” oh my god that’s delightful oh my god

ohno. you should not send Dalinar back to war, u should keep him at home and maybe find him a therapist to talk to him about the Thrill...

FLYING KHOLINS AHOY!!

“something profoundly disconcerting about being out on the ocean” disconcerting? You’ve misspelled exciting.

They are holding hands while flying that’s adorable

I love that it’s “Elhokar’s team” when we all know Kaladin will end up in charge, much to Adolin’s chagrin...

No comment on what Dalinar’s hair looks like all windswept, obviously that means he’s been windswept into full greaser-style pompadour.

“shellheads” really? wtf. you didn’t call them that before. it’s only after they gain sentience that you give them derogatory nicknames?

High King Dalinar founding his own kingdom is wild to think about...

All of Navani’s scribes and engineers are so excitable. I love it.

Dalinar sneaking about without guards is nervewracking. Pls be safe, buddy.

“what else were important lighteyes going to do with unmotivated children?” Uuh...motivate them? Don’t just throw them aside to the church and expect them to drain resources by doing nothing for the rest of their lives? Find some way for them to be productive members of society? Why is this such a hard concept?

Fucking lighteyes

“He was RURAL Alethi he CAN’T be a HERALD” fuck off, Kadash. Kaladin is from a backwater and he’s a Radiant. And Taln wasn’t a king. We know this.

“No spiritual basis for rule” seems like a good thing to me...separation fo church and state and all that...

Something I’m not surprised that Vorinism sucks ass at caring for the mentally ill...

Yeah, ok, but who cut Taln’s wall from the outside? one of the other Heralds? Someone who still has their honorblade? Or some...Diagram/Ghostblood/SonofHonor mofo who realized before we did that Taln is a Herald? I’M CONCERNED FOR MY ANCIENT BROKEN SON

“Lately, he didn’t much like himself.” Noooooo, Moaaaashhh!! I still like you! A lot!!!

I am absolutely delighted that the Fused point their toes when they are flying. My synchronized swimming ass is just...DELIGHTED

“You don’t farm an apocalypse.” heheheh

The tavern is called the Fallen Tower? really? Dalinar’s army fell at the Tower... and Bridge Four saved them. really.

omg noooo noooooooooo no

nooo

nooooooooo

that’s

a lumberyard. and

ladderruns. that’s the same damn thing oh god

no, I don’t want this.

Let Moash Live 2k17

There’s a weird trend of swapping PoVs in the middle of a chapter. I’m not used to it.

“They acted like they owned her already.” I mean...they kinda do, Shallan. You kinda fucked up with them.

“without her having to remain at the meeting” hon, you are needed at the meetings for reasons other than your mapmaking skills??

“I am my own woman” teeeechnically, you’re...what, Taravangian’s subject now? Right, he’s in charge of Vedenar.

Evi deserves better than punk!Dalinar. Him yelling at her because she invaded his manly man-space is gross and he should stop

Navani just chilling with Evi and Ialai is wild. I legit can’t imagine them all getting along.

Also, I love that Renarin’s name is just a name. I love the convoluted meaning of nothing. it’s great.

Evi is a Good and she! deserves! better!

oh god babies

tiny, tiny babies

Evil flying chulls!! Tiny Adolin is too cute oh god

Just writing down that page 519 is the glyph alphabet. That’s important, you know. :)

NanKhet’s list of assassination attempts and then his like... banquet of executions. is some Greek mythology shit up in here. That’s #yikes

Pastry chef scholar man! I love it! I love that there aRE people in Vorin lands who don’t adhere to Vorinism’s gender roles, people who think gender roles are for squares.

Hello Darkness My Old Friend has waaay too many names. Nakku, Nalan, Nale. This is why I just still call him Hello Darkness.

“Did you misplace her?” One does not simply misplace Lift.

They keep talking about how Thaylen City was super wrecked by the Everstorm and that’s fair, but like...has anyone heard from Shin? Talk about being unprotected for a wrong-way highstorm...

Jasnah reflexively sucking in Stormlight the second Amaram appears in the doorway is Big Mood.

“Other than the fact that you are a detestable buffoon who acheives only the lowest level of mediocrity, as it is the best your limited mind can imagine? I can’t possibly think of a reason.” GOD FUCKING BLESS.

“Give me an excuse. I dare you.” BIGGEST MOOD EVER OH MY GOD

yeah, you run away. fucker.

“The Windrunner” “the flying bridgeman” “brightlord broodingeyes” HE HAS A NAME, LADIES. He has a name.

I’m super tired of everyone--especially Jasnah--underestimating and disregarding Renarin.

And then he goes and does COOL SHIT LIKE FIND THE RESONATING LIBRARY!!!!??

Also, Jasnah can infuse gems with light? wacky fun.

oohh LIghtweaving isn’t just light it’s “and various waveforms” Renarin’s LIghtweaving is super different from Shallan’s isn’t it!!? I can’t want to see MOAR SURGES

Nooooo, Moash.... you gotta do the Kaladin thing! You can’t let go! Look at you, you are already helping the people he helped. You can’t stop yourself any more than he could. You’re not here to let go. You’re here to remember how to care.

Moash bby, I know you are prone to stupid decisions, but please...please don’t do anything stupid...

.........like that.

okay, creepy flying in charge lady. is creepy.

Okay, teaching the parshmen how to spear is good? sort of? from a certain point of view.

Ooooh Rlain pov!!! That’s new and interesting.

you know why is he here? How did he not get eaten by the first Everstorm?

HECK YE ALL FIVE LADY SCOUT WINDRUNNER SQUIRES HEEECKKK YYESSSSS

THEMS MY GIRLS

“He loved them because they did try.” Aaaahhhhh

“That’s like...extra manly.” I’m not sure that’s how being gay works, but I’ma roll with it. :D

“I guess it’s just a thing men say. Can you tell me how it feels?” “I can try.” KALADIN IS A GOOD WHO IS TRYING VERY HARD AND RLAIN IS ALSO A GOOD WHO IS TRYING VERY HARD AND I’M EMOTIONAL

I am so glad they are Trying Together.

That is an interesting question...did the magic stagnate them? stop people from being interested in finding non-magic ways of doing things? not just steel, but like...idk, indoor plumbing and better ways of farming, or anything that a Soulcaster can do. Why would you need better ways when you have the magic way?

It’s a very Harry Potter Wizard Wolrd mentality, tbh.

Oh shit, the Recreance was 2k years AFTER the Heralds bugged out and broke the Oathpact? That’s a long time for them to keep going without their leaders? and then to suddenly stop after all that time? whyyyy

what did they learn? about their spren? Jasnah knows.

Oh no!!!

nooo

he can hear the spren dying!!!???? OH NOOO

OH SNAP

WHAT

WHAT

NO

UM??? WHAT

THE FUCK?

HOW DID HE HACK DALINAR’S VISION?? WHERE DID HE COME FROM? HOW DID HE GET HERE? HOW DANGEROUS IS HE IN THIS FORM? HOW IS HE HERE?

WHAT

IS

HAPPENING

god, how many times did Dalinar rely on the Thrill? that’s got to leave some kind of bond, some connection. Something Odium can exploit.

God, it’s still really weird to think of Odium--the bad guy--as light, gold, white. it’s refreshing, but also wtf

Ah, fuck off, you’re not a god. The Shardholders are not gods. They’re just dudes with extra powerful magic. Ask Sazed.

God, okay, the STormfather is so. scared. wtf.

Oooohh, he hasn’t gotten Cultivation yet. She’s hidden and he’s bound--not very well if he’s here now, but still.

Can she help us?

Why does he...have to kill people? Is it because he’s the avatar of hatred of something else?

...interesting. Passion.

..........interesting that the Thaylens worship the Passions.

Also, I resent that if he’s All Sorts of Emotion/Passion, there’s the implication that all emotion eventually leads to violence, and I RESENT THAT SO HARD

oh snap, Cultivation is the Nightwatcher? What? I did not expect that...

goes further to the None of the Three Shards Are Good or Bad

though Odium might be lying...

what the shit

was that the Odium hell planet?

Did....did Lift just... scare him away?

I’m increaingly thinking shes got a bit of Cultivation in her. She’s not just a kiddo, and not just a Radiant, there’s something funky going on with her, and I think it’s something powerful enough to scare Odium.. hm...

EEEEYYYYY END PART TWO!!!!!

eww gross, Taravangian AND Venli? Bad interludes are bad. Where’s Szeth? I miss him.

[rainy-apple-autumn]

My Post-Oathbringer thoughts:

LIFT IS TOO GOOD, TOO  A W E S O M E  FOR THIS WORLD

Her interactions with Dalinar were the BEST, and I loved the way she dealt with Nightblood. it was so deevy

Also, when she got hit by that boulder and it snapped her legs, I was physically pained. LIFT DOESN’T DESERVE THIS!!!

I absolutely loved seeing more of Wit in this book. We’ve gotten to see him being helpful before, but in Oathbringer he was downright selfless

That scene with the little girl and the doll???? I’m not crying you’re crying!!!!!

aLSO WHEN HE HUGGED SHALLAN AND TOLD HER THAT SHE WASN’T A MONSTER AHHHHHH

also also that scene where he was first talking to Shallan and making her eat??? Like, he’s such a mom and it’s killing me

ANOTHER ALSO, he has a spren now???? A cryptic, no less??? A part of me was surprised that he didn’t already have one. But now I’m just super excited to see what he does with it

I was REALLY hoping Azure was going to be Vivenna, and now I’m worried because I’m pretty sure it’s not her, but... then... what happened to Vivenna??? If she’s dead I will riot

I actually teared up a little at Rysn’s chapter?? Disabilities are no joke, man, and Brandon Sanderson did a nice job explaining some of the feelings that come along with it.

Every one of Shallan’s chapters was basically me screaming SHALLAN NO! while she ran in the opposite direction, wearing yet another identity, screaming SHALLAN YES!

Her panic attack after nearly dying was OW and I thought that was going to be the worst of it, but then the whole thing with the kid and the food and MY HEART

The way she tells Adolin that he’s marrying 3 different people was ridiculous but also heartwarming

Adolin is going to revive a Shardblade I know it and I’M SO EXCITED

I really, really liked Jasnah in books one and two... but she seemed really off in this book for some reason? I mean, as I understood it, she’s basically never shown affection to anyone, ever, but in Oathbringer she 1) cried when she saw her mother 2) actually stopped to ask Shallan to be honest with her, 3) didn’t kill Renarin and hugged him instead, 4) smiled at Dalinar, 5) was openly crying and mourning at her father’s funeral, 6) got into a heated argument with her ex... and anyways. I mean, those aren’t bad, by any means, and it’s kinda nice to see Jasnah being more open, but it just kinda seemed too rushed and forced and I didn’t love it. 

ALSO! How on earth did Shallan react when Jasnah walked into the room at the end of Part One??? Sanderson just kinda... skipped over that part!?!?! I mean, it almost sounds like Shallan either fainted or that Jasnah just walked in, said hi, and then turned on her heel and walked away, either of which is just super weird

OKAY AND, DESPITE MY OTHER RESERVATIONS, I NEED TO EXPRESS HOW MUCH I APPRECIATE THAT JASNAH IS OFFICIALLY A QUEEN NOW. I MEAN, SHE ALWAYS HAS BEEN, BUT. IT’S OFFICIAL. I’M SCREAMING.

Before this book, I honestly had no idea what the Unmade were or how they worked. And... I still don’t. I mean. They’re spren?? Big spren?? Evil?? Where did they come from?? What are they?? I need to do some serious wiki-searching. I do feel like I have a somewhat better idea, but there’s still a lot of vagueness.

Alright. So, I firmly believe that Elhokar was a cinnamon roll and I really do love him, but at the same time... he kinda makes no sense as a character??? Like, other than the whole “Kaladin wants to kill the king” plot in WoR, it feels like he didn’t serve a lot of purpose. Pretty much everything that he was used for, plot-wise, could have been done by another character. Maybe that doesn’t make a lot of sense? But like, take Elhokar out of Stormlight and I feel like almost nothing changes. So, him dying was pretty eh to me. I mean, what was the point?

AMARAM IS DEAD!! HE’S DEAD!! AHHHH!!

Dalinar basically forgetting about Renarin all the time when he was a kid BREAKS MY HEART

I really like Queen Fen? Nothing more to say here but I really like her

Szeth getting his powers was incredible and I love that he’s officially on the team. 

When he was playing around with his peers and getting hit by dust pouches. That was Very Good

Also his casual respect for Nightblood and pretty much everyone is so pure

I love that Kaladin didn’t have to say the words, in the end. I’m sure that’ll come up in the next book, but like, it’s nice that for once he doesn’t have to save everyone, all the time. 

Also Syl was amazing in this book. I can’t really think of all the things I loved about her, but there was a lot. She’s such a good friend to Kal.

I know a lot of people might argue with me for this... but I actually didn’t love Evi that much. She just felt kinda bland? Nice, definitely! But she felt more like a plot device than a character, you know?

On the subject of Dalinar’s love interests, Navani puts up with so much?? My word

Also, Navani’s fabrials are wonderful and I love that she’s such a subtle, underestimated genius

Okay. and. the way that Odium was finally presented to us was really, really cool. 

I was definitely expecting Odium to be the literal embodiment of hate, but the fact that he’s passion, and emotion, and justice, and all these things that we all kinda consider to be good to some degree? It’s kinda cliche, but I appreciate that it wasn’t so black and white.

But more than that, there was a really strong emphasis on Odium himself wanting to take responsibility for people’s anger and hate. Which seems generous, right? But like Dalinar kinda hints at, taking away guilt and shame robs humans of an essential part of their growth and learning. That’s a fundamentally Mormon idea, and I straight-up fell in love with the way it was presented.

And... those are my thoughts for now. I’m sure I’ll come up with more things to scream about later, but for now I just need to sit in a quiet room and take some deep breaths because WOW. That was intense.

[mistralrunner]

Running Reads Oathbringer: Part II.IV

I decided to turn my "let's run over 5 miles to a park with the largest book I can find and climb a tree to read it and then run back" stunt a couple years back with Words of Radiance into a tradition. Despite the fact that when I read Words of Radiance it was summer and thus a reasonable time to sit outside, unlike the approaching winter of the present. Managed to read nearly two chapters of Oathbringer and then it started raining despite the forecast not saying it would rain until a few hours later. Well, journey before destination!

Spoilers for pages 481-528 ahead. Also Mistborn thoughts again cause I have a problem.

The sea? As in an actual or metaphorical sea.

I'm amused at the irony that this dreaded work placement is not as bad as what fellow humans forced Moash to do

It's still slavery. It's still awful. But it is interesting how humans acted more odiously toward their slaves. The Voidbringers are efficient and focused rather than wantonly destructive.

But Moash you're falling into apathy here. People can be better

It's ironic that Moash was the one Kaladin appreciated for not revering him and now Moash is putting him on a pedestal

The Voidbringers still have Parshmen slaves? Are you kidding me? I really shouldn't be surprised but still.

I am surprised they're treated worse than the humans. Did they try to rebel? Were they the Listeners or Kaladin's people (please not the latter it would hurt Kaladin)

And they're almost taking the place of Bridge Four as the ones who are treated the worst so even if you're in a bad spot at least you aren't them

Oh no

They are the ones Kaladin helped

Noooooo

What about the children?

This hurts

The horrible irony that these people ended up worse off for being helped. That is evil.

Kaladin save them please

Or Moash. That would be ironic.

Yes you go Moash!

Twenty three years ago so Adolin's around now?

Oh no Dalinar not you too with the firemoss

Yikes Dalinar re the bar fight

Honestly “yikes Dalinar” is a good summary of these chapters

Wow born unto light that is a name

Now I want to know all the name meanings

What happened with Jasnah all those years ago and her "lunacy"?

(Around this time while reading eerie pattering started around me and I realized rain was approaching and packed up. My book is unharmed)

Gavilar, Alethela was great in part cause they recognized fighting as a necessary evil not because they saw fighting as what made them great and in charge

It's good Dalinar is at least aware he has a problem. That is a first step.

I am concerned about whatever Gavilar is thinking might help with Dalinar's problems

Huh he's not going to the Rift? At least not yet cause I'm pretty sure whatever he forgot there hasn't been shown yet.

Heh that's a nice echo of Gavilar's last words to his brother "if only I knew the right ones to say" "you must find the most important words a man can say"

WHAT IS GOING ON

Obrodai?

Shards conquering worlds?

Is this what Sazed is facing in era II?

I am really fixated on that problem since Sanderson confirmed the red-eyed kandra in The Bands of Mourning aren't of Odium but are related to something similar happening across the Cosmere

They can make avatars of themselves?

As in they invest a person and bring them under as their god or something else?

I am so confused

Just let me spend ten minutes staring at the epigraph and ignoring the actual chapter

Dalinar's flying?

Dalinar and Navani are flying?

YES TEN SQUIRES AT LEAST ARE FLYING I’M SO PROUD

That really does speed up warcamp travel time

Ten weeks huh-I should try making a timeline

Yes it was Rushu who came along

I have so many favorite minor characters

Yesss Navani doing engineering and Dalinar being happy for her

Yes Queen Fen!

So we're sending Kaladin to unlock the Oathgate? That's the only person we can really send.

In which Dalinar faces the greatest adversary of DnD: the door

And like a typical DnD player he doesn’t think to look/ask for the key first  

I love the Windrunner express

So does this mean Hoid is going to be missing this book because he's facing the dreaded water level of a video game in order to seek help for Roshar from some arrogant Shard?

I want this story now.

Okay the artificial stone wards are pretty cool

Heh, stonewards

The presence of crem in general is interesting.

It really is interesting that these beings of Odium aren't doing a slash and burn

And that this is the book where we're getting backstory on Gavilar and Dalinar's campaign for the contrast of conquest methods

Also I wonder how much of that Fused being impressed with the orchards is due to the fact that during the last Desolation and thus the last time the Fused were active human society was in tatters and probably didn't have anything like that

Moash, just casually admitting he killed a Voidbringer XP

Sah has to deal with a second member of Bridge Four

What happened to Sah's daughter I'm still worried can we save her

You know if any of the Voidbringers can acquire and use an Honorblade, we're in trouble once more Oathgates get unlocked

Huh that is a clever design, keeping suburbs far from the city so you can't siege from immediately outside

Wow

That is just

The sheer amount of dramatic irony there

Hysterical laughing really is the reasonable response

Laddermen doesn't have the same ring to it as Bridgemen though

Sorry Ishnah, the Ghostbloods aren't impressed with you

I am really concerned about how dangerous a position Shallan is re the Ghostbloods

And also the fact that Mraize's statement at the end of WoR about Shallan vs Veil is coming true cause Shallan really is fading

I'm concerned that the reason for this Lightweaving discovery was skipping more meetings that she really should be attending but that is a very useful skill

Okay Shallan that is a good idea I'm impressed. And a nice presentation.

Give everyone a hat-I mean sphere-of disguise

Also glad Elhokar's taking a bit more command

My DnD instincts are too strong though and I keep thinking what if someone has Truesight? Which still could be valid here you never know. Or one of those Stormlight draining creatures like Nale had.

The irony if Gaz is brought along

Eighteen and a half years? How old is Renarin again. How much did the Kholin brothers see of their father in early childhood?

Okay at least being responsible for tactics is a step forward for Dalinar

The Thrill addiction really is disturbing. Such a good underhanded weapon of Odium.

You haven't even read all her letters...

Team Evi deserves better

Really Dalinar you were there for Adolin's birth but not Renarin's? He was the looked over son since birth?

And he ignored the spanreed for the naming of Renarin while delightedly naming Adolin

Dalinar, Evi tried and is at least taking effort to listen and learn tradition

"Like one who was born unto himself" kind of fits Renarin unconventional cryptic but ties to family names, like and unlike

Dalinar you were so elated over Adolin and now Renarin doesn't get that love how dare you

I love Evi

At least Dalinar realizes she deserves better.

Aaaa little Kholin brothers

Evil flying chulls pfft

...as cute as the little kid salute is it is really disconcerting that Adolin doesn't see enough of his father that that is the greeting that happens

D'aww baby Renarin

Okay I am indignant that Renarin isn't getting the same love

Ooo glyph info

The idea of infiltrating the Calligraphers Guild is hilarious

Purity's Eye? I feel like I should be able to place that reference.

Okay this is so cool I love this

Glyph explanations!

Linguistics!

So the general person isn't aware of these procedures? Otherwise I feel like the Stormwardens could have just adopted the phonemes rather than combining glyphs phonetically

Really tempted to attempt to make glyphs now

Yay Jasnah

Wait is this another letter

Hmm does that mean that earlier part was actually multiple letters

That would explain why I got confused

Hoid is sending a lot of letters

Ooh Veristitalian stuff?

Okay that is messed up NanKhet

The fact that Navani turned that area into a scholarly institute is so delightful

Huh that must have been frustrating, wanting to discuss scholarship with people when all they care about talking about is your atheism when you've established that you'd rather not be defined by something that you don't believe

But science and scholarship everywhere!

Hey Jasnah Renarin can float between worlds if he wants it's called balance and being well-rounded

Especially cause if I was in Roshar I definitely be doing the same thing cause Bridge Four but also scholarship

I want to believe you're not so limited

I really respect Jasnah's dedication and effort to quietly protecting her family

And yeah really why are royal families often so messed up

I do not want stormwardens near Renarin albeit for different reasons than Jasnah. I don't trust them.

Tashikk's system is so cool

If the Voidbringers target it....

Fantasy chat room!

Jochi and Ethid I love them already 

I'm glad Jasnah has Veristitalian colleagues/friends 

See Jochi is well rounded and in two worlds, a philosopher and running a pastry shop

Ooh Ethid’s a scion I was curious about those

Oh right Ethid could have been there when Nale/Darkness/Inspector Javert tried to kill Lift in the Azish palace

Is this how Szeth is going to return to the narrative? Jasnah hunting Heralds?

Jochi spotted Axies the Collector? He's known of in certain circles?

Heh they're discussing Lift

I need to reread Edgedancer to see if Ethid showed up at all

Is Dalinar's vision the unexpected source of the images of the Heralds or something else

Yeah Ethid it really does feel like Radiants are popping up everywhere

I'm just really happy Jasnah has scholar buddies

Wait Navani and Shallan are already discussing wedding Adolin this feels too soon and like something will go wrong probably learning Adolin killed Sadeas

I mean I figured something was off with Renarin given we know what the Truthwatcher spren should look like from that interlude with he poor cobbler and his foresight hasn't been confirmed as a Truthwatcher ability but now I'm really getting scared

*Hisses at Amaram*

I love how two of the characters I despised can technically be referred to by the same name now

OHHH

OHHHHHH

BURN

okay I take it back Amaram's presence was acceptable just so I could see him get burned

"Remind me to find whoever told you and have them hanged"

I LOVE YOU JASNAH

Also bonus points for glowing while you say that

Destroy him Jasnah

Tear him apart

Ugh I actually hate Amaram even more now, dude not listening when a woman says no, physically grabbing her

Oh man this is just delightful

Also I have never seen Jasnah this...vitriolic?

Shame Kaladin isn't watching

Team Amaram haters unite!

This is so beautiful

What does Jasnah know about him though

Heh yeah my reaction is pretty close to Shallan's

Jasnah's just oh no I was a poor example

And to be fair insulting ones female relative isn't a great route but I was just so delighted to see Amaram verbally attacked

Ah Shallan skipping over the part where it was your idea not Elhokar's

Ooh what did Renarin find

What on Roshar? Just sounds a tad jarring even if it fits

Oh that is awesome

Glowing musical gem language to preserve knowledge aaaa

[preservationandruin]

Oathbringer Liveblog Part Five, Chapters 114-116

This part is titled New Unity, which I can only hope is a positive sign. Our perspectives are, somehow, an EVEN LONGER LIST THAN LAST TIME: The Knights Radiant, which could include up to like seven people; Ash; Navani; Adolin; Taravangian; Yanagawn (better known as Gawx); Palona; Vyre; and Wit.

Yes, that is--of course--nine viewpoints. Wonderful. Nine, just coming up again and again. 

Dalinar meets the Mother and in the present-day starts gathering his resolve. Unfortunately, at precisely that moment in every single setting we’re near, everything goes directly to hell. 

Flashback, because god forbid we catch up on any of those tantalizing plot threads left dangling throughout the Interludes and the end of the last Part

Dalinar wakes up in a Stormwagon. He’s clearly just had a Vision--one of the first--but hasn’t really realized what’s going on. We get that one of Dalinar’s soldiers--Felt--actually had visited the Nightwatcher before. Apparently, the Nightwatcher didn’t actually come for Felt--she doesn’t visit everyone. You go in right after dark, alone, because she doesn’t like groups. We get a flock of “chickens”--black, size of a fist, seem like they’re close to being Starlings to me. 

The Nightwatcher lives in a valley that is exploding with plant life. All of it falls on top of itself, a wild overgrowth. 

Dalinar heads inward, once night falls. 

He could barely see in the darkness, but Felt had been right--trails revealed themselves as vines and branches bent away from him, allowing Dalinar entrance with the same reluctance as guards allowing an unfamiliar man into the presence of their king.  He had hoped for the Thrill to aid him here. This was a challenge, was it not? He felt nothing, not even a hint. 

GOOD. The Thrill is the last thing you want to be feeling, pretty much ever. 

Wait. What was that? A sound different from scurries in the underbrush or vines withdrawing. He stopped in place. It was... Weeping.  Oh, Almighty above. No. He heard a boy weeping, pleading for his life. It sounded like Adolin. Dalinar turned from the sound, searching the darkness. Other screams and pleas joined that one, people burning as they died. 

Of course, it wasn’t going to be that easy. Dalinar tries to run, but the undergrowth trips him; the voices grow and he panics, summoning Oathbringer and trying to clear space. 

Suddenly he saw himself in the Unclaimed Hills, fighting those traitorous parshmen. He saw himself killing, and hacking, and murdering. He saw his lust, eyes wide and teeth clenched in a dreadful grin. A skull’s grin.  He saw himself strangling Elhokar, who had never possessed his father’s poise or charm. Dalinar took the throne. It should have been his anyway.  His armies poured into Herdaz, then Jah Keved. He became a king of kings, a mighty conqueror whose accomplishments far overshadowed those of his brother. Dalinar forged a unified Vorin empire that covered half of Roshar. An unparalleled feat!  And he saw them burn.  Hundreds of villages. Thousands upon thousands of people. It was the only way. If town resisted, you burned it to the ground. You slaughtered any who fought back, and you left the corpses of their loved ones to feed the scavengers. You sent terror before you like a storm until your enemies surrendered. 

This is what he sees for himself if he escapes alcoholism. Holy shit. The epitome of “do you sacrifice people for something great.” And Dalinar--the great man in Dalinar, the one fighting the horrible man--knows that that’s not what he wants. 

And the Nightwatcher comes. 

Hello, human. You smell of desperation. The feminine voice was like a hundred overlapping whispers. The elongated figure moved among the trees ringing the clearing, stalking him like a predator. 

The Nightwatcher is a dark green mist, vaguely like a person crawling, long essence trailing behind her, distended limbs reaching out. The only detail is a face, vaguely feminine. Hands sprout from the mist that is her, thousands of them, holding Dalinar’s face. 

What is it you wish of me? the Nightwatcher asked. What boon drives you, Son of Honor? Son of Odium? 

That’s a very interesting way to refer to him. 

The boon he asks for is forgiveness. She pauses, asking if he wants various things, including “a blade that bleeds darkness and cannot be defeated.” 

Did...did she have Nightblood at some point? Because that sure sounds like Nightblood. 

Nightwatcher keeps asking him, until something--speaking like Stormy does in ALL CAPITALS--interrupts her. 

Hesitant, Dalinar turned and found a woman with brown skin--the color of darkwood bark--standing at the edge of the clearing. She had a matronly build and wore a sweeping brown dress.  Mother? the Nightwatcher said. Mother, he came to me. I was going to bless him. 

SHE.

Dalinar walks with her into the forest, the Nightwatcher walking beside them; she says she lets the Nightwatcher hold court because it helps her understand humanity. She tells Dalinar to ask Honor for forgiveness; he answers that he couldn’t find it there. 

“I am doomed, then,” Dalinar whispered, stopping in place. He could still hear those voices. “They weep, Mother.”  She looked back at him. 

The first time she turns to look at him is when he calls her Mother. 

This woman...she was more than he could see. Vines from her dress curled into the earth, permeating everything. In that moment, he knew that he was not seeing her, but instead a fragment with which he could interact.  This woman extended into eternity. 

She says she will not make him into who he can become, although she will take his “compulsions”--his alcoholism, I assume. And she says she will provide a “pruning,” a careful excision to help him grow. Which is exactly what she did. And she warned him that the cost would be high. 

IT WILL DO ME WELL TO HAVE A PART OF YOU, EVEN IF YOU ULTIMATELY BECOME HIS. YOU WERE ALWAYS BOUND TO COME TO ME. I CONTROL ALL THINGS THAT CAN BE GROWN, NURTURED.  THAT INCLUDES THE THORNS. 

FUCK THAT PLAY ON THE NAME “BLACKTHORN” IS SO GOOD

Anyway. She warned him that she would take Evi from him as well--and Dalinar, realizing that he never deserved her, tells her to do it. 

And when he crawls out of the forest, he’s forgotten. He assumes Evi was killed by assassins, and that his breakdown was due only to grief at her death. And he asks to find a copy of the Way of Kings. 

Over to Dalinar in the present. This epigraph is from the Eila Stele, talking about the coming of humanity to Roshar. 

The Voidbringers are coming toward Thaylen City, heading in on the storm. It hangs in the air over Thaylen City. The Alethi start pouring out of the city to fight them--Amaram’s troops,  which doesn’t give me high hopes, but, you know, Amaram is good at killing people, so there’s that at least. 

“You know, Cultivation warned me that my memories would return. She said she was ‘pruning’ me. Do you know why she did that? Did I have to remember?”  I do not know. Is it relevant?  “That depends on the answer to a question,” Dalinar said. He carefully closed the book atop the dresser before the window, then felt the symbols on the cover. “What is the most important step a man can take?” 

Cut to Shadesmar. Shallan, Adolin, and Kaladin are uniformly worried, especially given that there’s a “large dark mass of living red light” is on the shore--probably the Everstorm. We haven’t seen it in here, yet. And then there’s six Fused. 

Pretty bullshit odds. Shallan is pretty close to despairing. Syl and Kaladin are determined to get through. We head over to Jasnah, who has realized that Thaylen City is--probably--lost. Ivory also says that there’s a traitor, which is what she’s been suspecting. 

Also, Jasnah in a scout’s tunic and trousers. 

Listen I’m just a hopeless bi living my life here.

OH FUCK

A spren rose from [Renarin’s] back, bright red, shimmering like the heat of a mirage. A crystalline structure, like a snowflake, though it dripped light upward toward the ceiling. In her pouch, she carried a sketch of the proper spren of the Truthwatchers.  And this was something different. 

NO NO NO NO NO JASNAH TARAVANGIAN’S THE TRAITOR NOT RENARIN NO

Also, he’s in Pailiah’Elin’s temple--she was the one who led the Truthwatchers, if I remember right. Awwwh, Ren...

Venli is noting that Odium is very ready to spend lives--listener and singer lives, not only human lives. Timbre is more solidly getting “she” pronouns, here. Venli’s on the battlefield as an interpreter. The singers are...not happy with fighting. Some of them are fishers. They don’t, necessarily, want vengeance. They just want somewhere to call home. 

The Fused says they have “the wrong Passion,” saying that the Alethi were much more willing to attack their own areas. 

And then the air around Venli fills with ghostly spren--the Fused who haven’t chosen a body. 

Most were twisted to the point that she barely recognized them as singers. Two were roughly the size of buildings. She could see these overlaid on the real world, but somehow knew they would be invisible to most.

And then Odium appears to her, as a white-and-gold Parshman. Because god forbid this pretentious asshole look normal. Still, the fact that he’s personally overseeing the battle...is bad. 

Over to Teft, who is hiding. He’s feeling like he lets everyone down, every time he destroys himself he destroys all the people around him. 

When he looked up, she was there. The woman made of light and air, with curls of hair that vanished into mist.  “Why are you following me?” Teft growled. “Go pick one of the others. Kelek! Pick anyone but me.” 

Teft, you might not have heard, but honorspren are really stubborn. 

OH FUCK THE VOIDBRINGERS USED THE OATHGATE TO KHOLINAR TO ATTACK URITHIRU. FUCK. WHY DIDN’T I THINK THAT MIGHT BE A POSSIBILITY?? HOW DID THEY OPEN IT--

--the honorblade. Fuck. 

I’m really hoping I’m wrong as we switch over to Navani. 

Navani is saying they’re more likely to do well than Feh thinks--because Amaram is a renowned tactician. I...have less faith in Amaram’s abilities. 

OH FUCK ME THERE ARE THUNDERCLASTS

Out in the field between the enemy troops and the Alethi ones, the ground shattered. Lines and cracks split the stone, and then an enormous stone arm pulled itself from the ground--the fractures having outlined its hand, forearm, elbow, and upper arm.  A monster easily thirty feet tall pulled itself from the stone, dropping chips and dust on the enemy below. 

AND THEN THERE’S AN EVEN STRONGER ONE IN THE WATER. FUCK THIS. You know how I mentioned Pacific Rim the first time a thunderclast showed up?? Yeah, getting those vibes again. 

Great time for half of your Radiants to be stuck in an alternate dimension and the other half to maybe be fighting each other. 

Odium recognizes the Fused and refers to them as old friends, although they call him ‘master,’ so it’s not a very equal friendship. 

OH FUCK THE THING IS COMING OUT OF THE OCEAN

Something came surging out. Something primeval, something Venli had felt but never truly known. Red mist. Ephemeral, like a shadow you see on a dark day and mistake for something real. Charging red horses, angry and galloping. The forms of men, killing and dying, shedding blood and reveling in it. Bones piled atop one another, making a hill upon which men struggled.  The red mist climbed up from the surging waves, rolling out onto an empty section of rock, northward along the rim of the water. It brought to her a lust for the battlefield. A beautiful focus, a Thrill for the fight. 

FUCK. 

Anyway, in Shadesmar, the “giant red spren”--so that was the Unmade, the thrill--vanishes, as do more and more of the army. Soon, the army is gone, leaving only the six fused. Kaladin thinks he can fight them as a distraction. 

“Passion,” Odium said. “There is great Passion here.”  Venli felt cold. “I’ve prepared these men for decades,” Odium said. “Men who want nothing so much as something to break, to gain vengeance against the one who killed their highprince. Let the singers watch and learn. I’ve prepared a different army to fight for us today.”  Ahead of them on the battlefield, the human ranks slumped, their banner wavering. A man in glittering Shardplate, sitting upon a white horse, led them.  Deep within his helm, something started glowing red. 

A) Fuck me, this was smart of him. Sadeas’s army hates the Kholins, they want vengeance, and the Thrill--which they’ve been culturally conditioned to like--just hit them like a hammer

B) the dude in shardplate...that’s Amaram, right? A voidspren has...bonded with Amaram? 

FINALLY, AN EXCUSE TO KILL HIM

A sketch of the Oathgate guardians. They’re incredible and I love them. 

Cutting this here, just to get this out. More will be coming soon. 

[esseastri]

Megan Reads Oathbringer (part 5)

whhooooooo there’s still so much left, but I’ve come so far?? I’M !! THERE IS SO! MUCH! HAPPENING! IN ! THIS! BOOK!

Part 5 encompasses pages 326-394 (previous parts)

INTERLUDES 1

fucking. Venli? really? I don’t want to be in her head. I don’t want to know.

anyway! NEW PEOPLE FIRST:

“Puuli the lighthouse keeper” I LOVE THEM ALREADY

“Kelek himself had broken apart the land in the middle of a storm” I...Kelek? really? are you sure? Aren’t most of the Heralds busy being...not here?

Listen, Alyx told me that we’d seen all ten Heralds somewhere over the course of the series so far, and armed with this knowledge I have squinted at every single new character like “are YOU a crazy person who is sort of a god? are YOU a crazy person who is sort of a god?”

I’m pretty sure none of them have been crazy people who are sort of gods.

But I’m keeping my eyes peeled anyway.

I RELATE TO THIS ARDENT LADY BECAUSE I, TOO, WOULD LIKE TO BE LEFT ALONE IN PEACE AND QUIET AND VERY VERY LONELY SOLITUDE TO READ MY SMUT FIC.

“What was that you’re studying?” “Important works.” Obviously. Trashy romance novels are the HEIGHT of important works.

ROSHARN LINGUISTICS IS REALLY COOL.

it’s a trashy romance novel; of COURSE there’s a sequel.

tbqh, Venli, I’m not sure what you expected. “You should be taking orders from me.” Uh huh. Sure. You summoned a hatesprean that your people literally went dullform to escape, and you didn’t think you were going to be ordered around by it?

YOU KNEW YOUR GODS WERE EVIL WHY DID YOU THINK THAT SUMMONING THEM WOULD SAVE YOUR PEOPLE

nooooo

Eshonai please. don’t be dead. you’re the best of them, just...don’t

aaahhh

wow, that’s. a lot of information okay. um. Spren of redemption? yeah, I’ll believe that when never. The parshendi ANCESTORS? are in charge?? in charge of what? the spren? the voidbringers? the changes? the storm?

also Venli is KIND OF AN ASSHOLE and I mean, we knew this already but this kind of power-hungry selfishness is. really unfortunate in a person.

ooh. different spren? save Esh please? maybe? I LIVE IN HOPE.

PART TWO

what

BRIDGE FOUR gets a pov?!!!!!!??! MY BOYS!!!??!?!?!? AAHH

BHAHAHAHA I ALWAYS FORGET HOID’S REAL NAME IS A STUPIDLY RIDICULOUS STAR WARS NAME I Love it

how come we don’t get Navani’s reaction to her daughter just magically appearing back from the dead

I want the Navani-Jasnah reuinion scene. I’ve been robbed of good mother-daughter content.

“Storms. She was perfect.” Every. time. I love it. I love how super bi Shallan is and how desperately in love she is with two very different Kholins. What a good.

god bless Jasnah “Every Moment is a Teaching Moment if You Try Hard Enough” Kholin

you know, I’m also been robbed of Jasnah and Hoid’s Road Trip Adventure. I’m sad.

omg it’s so weird for Jasnah to be the one who’s a step behind.

AAHH JOINT VISION TIME YO this’ll be fun

oooohh the Stormfather does care. he has an imagination and everything.

bahahaaha Dalinar. How many times has he witnessed all these visions and he’s still a doofus when it comes to fitting into them.

OOOHH SUMMONING ARMOR THAT’S COOL!! Can they do that nowadays?? 

“they moved on all sixes” like yeeeeppp right, most stuff on roshar has six legs but that’s a wild variation on all-fours and suuuper jarring for a sec

hi, yeah, I love Fen a lot. petition to keep her.

also her assuming that Dalinar was working with the Voidbringers: not unreasonable considering the last few months of him possibly going crazy or not. like...she’s got reasons to be suspicious.

OMG THE ART FOR THE HEADER FOR BRIDGE FOUR AAAAAHHHHHH

SIGZIIIIILLLLL omg. Having panic dreams about messing up tests. I love him???

he’s SO OFFENDED THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO QUEUE I LOVE IT

hold on I’m changing my queue tag to “I’m Azish, I know how to queue”

BLESS. AFRO!SIGZIL

LOPEN EATING BREAKFAST ON THE CEILING WHAT A NERD

I HAVE MISSED THESE ROWDY BOYS

“Where was Teft? They actually listened when he gave orders.” MY BOYS ARE DUMB NERDS AND I LOVE THEM

what’s the “other thing”? Where does Teft disappear to? what is happen. why does Kaladin not know about it, but Sig does?

dear. god. I’m.

of course he does morning push ups. without his jacket on.

I’m

hhhnnnnngggggggggg

#priorities

I LOVE MY DUMB BOYS

LOOK AT THEM ALL GETTING MARRIED AND COURTING AND GETTING LUNCHES DROPPED OFF BY THEIR WIVES AND LOOK AT THEM BEING REAL PEOPLE WITH REAL LIVES AND I’M SO PROUD OF THEM THEY’VE COME SO FAR I LOVE THEM

also I adore that the only "problem” about Drehey being gay is that Sig thinks he’s gotta fill out forms, and that the indication is that in Azir, the forms go both ways. That’s. so refreshing and lovely and. Good job, Brandon! I’m so. this is A Good.

“Master Hoid” is a fucking hilarious juxtaposition of terms.

Kaladin’s desperate insistence that they won’t lose any more people is endearing and also terrifying because you just know someone is going to die and he’s going to be so upset and I’m going to have to drive back to Utah to yell at Brandon personally for making my boy suffer.

Can Lyn join Bridge Four? If we’re recruiting, can we recruit her?

BLESS. TWO SENTENCES LATER “How would you like to join the Windrunners.” GOOD YES EXCELLENT

me, anytime they even mention Moash: *long keening noises of despair and pain* 

Kaladin didn’t teeeeellll theeeemmmmmm he didn’t tell them what Moash did he didn’t tell them Moash hecked up and betrayed them he didn’t want then to be mad or to hate Moash I’M UPSET NOISES FOREVER

ohhhh my god.

Kaladin. Please.

Using the royal treasury’s emerald grain reserve to practice Radianting is DELIGHTFUL and HILARIOUS and also TERRIFYING OMG I LOVE IT THAT’S PERFECT

God, I love these boys.

Evi calls Dalinar “beloved” and I’m emotional

He doesn’t deserve her.

oooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

He didn’t kill the kid.

He didn’t--I... I doubted him. I thought--so caught up in the Thrill, I just ASSUMED, BUT here were the seeds. The idea that the Blackthorn wasn’t quite as horrible as he could have been. Which makes the changes later so much more plausible.

god, she’s so proud of him. I love her?

Gavilar can fuck right off, tbh, oh my god.

YAASSS, ROCK POV OMG

LUNAMOR

THAT’S SO PRETTY

“I want everyone on this plateau glowing like they swallowed a lantern.” that there’s a decent David Charleston metaphor.

WHERE! IS! TEFT! I’m so worried about him.

I love that they salute Dabbid.

I love them.

I love Bridge Four. I’m not sure if you guys know this about me.

LOPEN PLEASE. “Did you stick yourself to the ground?” “All part of the plan, gon.” IS IT THO, DARLING?

KALADIN TRYING TO TEACH HOBBER TO BREATHE IN STORMLIGHT SO HE CAN HEAL HIS LEGS IS SO GOOD KALADIN IS SO GOOD I’M

crying

“I now have to either promote him or push him off the side of the plateau.” “Promote him? to what?” “Airsick lowlander. Second class.”

HELLO, FRONDS, I DON’T KNOW IF YOU ARE AWARE, BUT I! LOVE! BRIDGE! FOUR! SO! MUCH!

I...they saved the bridge.

I love that Rock bows to and respects even the spren he can’t see. Also I get the feeling that no one really ever sees Glys, except Renarin. Which makes...sense, in a weird way? I guess...’cause they are both so quiet and reserved. Or we assume Glys shares that with Renarin. It seems right though, if that’s true.

Also, Rock making work for Renarin, just so he can be included, which is all he wants is A Good. Rock is an extremely observant fellow, once he puts his mind to it, isn’t he?

Rock is really, really good at making people feel better. And he knows exactly what people need. Skar is a teacher, so he gives him the opportunity to teach. Renarin needs a confidence boost, so he tells him not to see himself as a flaw, but as a person. Rlain needs company, so he sends Renarin to him. He’s very good at manipulating people into making themselves feel better. It’s really delightful.

HOBBER!!!! HOBBER GOT IT!!! THEY’RE ALL JUST GIVING HIM THEIR GEMS THEY DON’T EVEN HESITATE THEY’rE JUST

I’M CRYING I LOVE THEM SO MUCH THEY ARE ALL SO DAMN GOOD

you know what, fuck Sadeas.

OH MY GOSH

OOOOOHHH

ROCK’S FAMILY!!!!! IS HERE!!! THERE’S KIDDOS!!!!!! I’M!!!!! OH MY GOSH

HER NAME IS SONG AND THEY ARE CHILDHOOD SWEETHEARTS AND I’M CRYING AGAIN

they are SO GOOD. honoring their bridge for its last run. the last one. That’s...almost incomprehensible, but YEAH! They fly now! what do they need a bridge for! (a bridge four. hah) But the still...they honor it. It saved their lives. It was all they had. Of course it gets one last run.

aahh, I love Bridge Four so, so much.

[preservationandruin]

Oathbringer Liveblog: Part Two. Chapters 33-37

Sorry for the delay, gang! Life has been busy and I haven’t had time to keep up my reading and liveblogging at the same pace. But! I should be able to get at least some out now. 

Shallan gets a lecture, Dalinar has a conversation, Kaladin chats with his men about their lives and also starts training them; we have a Dalinar flashback, and a Rock POV. 

Just at the beginning, we have actually-accurate drawings of Urithiru, ,and the letter that will be this chapter’s epigraphs is addressed to Cephandrius, who--I believe--is Hoid. Whoever’s writing it calls him “Dearest Cephandrius,” which is either someone being sarcastic or someone who likes Hoid much more than most other characters who know him. 

Anyway, Shallan is reacting to the fact that Jasnah is alive. She also refers to what she did as “grope an eldritch spren,” which is pretty hilarious. 

Jasnah claimed to always look at things from a logical perspective, but she had a flair for the dramatic to rival any storyteller. 

That’s because she’s a Kholin and, as we all know, drama runs in their bloodline like blue and purple eyes and Alethi dark hair. And again, every time Shallan looks at Jasnah is a Relatable Bisexual Mood: 

Storms. She was perfect. A curvaceous figure, tan Alethi skin, light violet eyes, and not a hint of aberrant color to her jet-black hair. Making Jasnah Kholin as beautiful as she was brilliant was one of the most unfair things the Almighty had ever done. 

SAME, Shallan. And of course, Jasnah sees this return as a teaching moment. Jasnah also tells Shallan that fabrials are, essentially, made by imprisoning spren. Also, when Shallan starts sarcastically talking back to her Jasnah smiles. I think she missed her over-inquisitive sarcastic ward. And Jasnah has run into Kaladin, once--kinda sad we missed that encounter. Shallan also is heartened, kind of, by the fact that Jasnah too has no idea what she’s doing. 

The letter mentions that the writer, among other things, notices Hoid’s “many intrusions into my land.” That’s interesting--implies whoever wrote this is some sort of ruler over an area. A Shard, or just a king of some sort? Hard to say. 

Anyway, over to Dalinar. He’s having his meeting with Queen Fah in the storm. He’s showing her the Knights Radiant saving people--the vision with the family that Dalinar got in the first book. Also,  a rare moment of philosophy from the Stormfather as Dalinar asks about the place of endless white stone where they talk: 

I IMAGINED IT, the Stormfather said more softly,  as if he were admitting something embarrassing. ALL THINGS HAVE A SOUL. A VASE, A WALL, A CHAIR. AND WHEN A VASE IS BROKEN, IT MIGHT DIE IN THE PHYSICAL REALM, BUT FOR A TIME ITS SOUL REMEMBERS WHAT IT WAS. SO ALL THINGS DIE TWICE. ITS FINAL DEATH IS WHEN MEN FORGET IT WAS A VASE, AND THINK ONLY OF THE PIECES. I IMAGINE THE VASE FLOATING AWAY THEN, ITS FORM DISSOLVING INTO NOTHINGNESS. 

This has some interesting larger implications, too. Much as the cognitive form of the vase sticks around when its broken...the Stormfather is almost the same thing in regards to Honor, you know? A Cognitive Shadow. Is one of the things keeping the Stormfather “alive” the fact that people think of him as the Almighty? 

Anyway, Dalinar has taken the place of one of the radiants, the female one in amber shardplate. He isn’t in Shardplate, though, and is wondering about the differences between Radiant Shardplate and Normal Shardplate. So am I, to be honest. Anyway, he’s trying to fish for information about it, but Stormy dissuades him. 

“How,” Dalinar whispered to the Stormfather. “How do we get the armor?”  Speak the Words. “Which words?”  You will know or you will not.  Great. 

Anyway, he meets up with Queen Feh, and they start talking. She points out that it sounds like bullshit that the Almighty would pick Dalinar--”a tyrant and a murderer”--to lead the knights Radiant,  and it hits Dalinar pretty personally because, well, it’s right. 

“Maybe all the good men are dead, so all you have is me!” 

Anyway, Feh is pleased that Dalinar is honestly shouting at her, rather than being tactful and diplomatic. Also, she points out that the vision--which the Stormfather has paused--is really creepy. And Dalinar realizes--the way he was acting, the way he was eerily calm over the spanreed--it made him seem like he was in league with the Voidbringers. 

Dalinar also points out that he learned one important thing--he learned that if he talks to Feh by being himself, she listens more easily. 

Bridge Four, now! Have I mentioned I love Bridge Four. Sigzil was having that nightmare where you’re about to take important tests but you forgot how to read. Lopen is using the fact that Kaladin is back--and, thus, that they’re squires again--to walk upside down on the ceiling. Lopen also uses the nickname “hooch” to refer to Sigzil but refuses to explain what it means. 

Sigzil also reveals that he didn’t pass the important tests, got himself into trouble, and Hoid ended up rescuing him. That’s an interesting note. And then somehow he ended up a slave on Sadeas’ least lucky bridge crew. 

Sigzil found Kaladin doing morning push-ups on the stone floor. His blue jacket was draped over a chair.  “Sir,” Sigzil said.  “Hey, Sig,” Kaladin said, grunting as he continued doing push-ups. “Are the men up and mustered”“  “Up, yes,” Sigzil said. “When I left them, they seemed bordering on a food fight, and only half were in uniform. 

Have I mentioned I love Bridge Four. 

“And then there’s the matter of Drehy...”  “What matter?”  “Well, he’s been courting a man, you see...”  Kaladin threw on his coat, chuckling. “I did know about that one. You only now noticed?”  Sigzil nodded.  “It’s Dru he’s been seeing, still? From the district quartermaster’s offices?” 

Listen, this segment means a lot to me. it’s just...it’s very important to me that one of the guys in Bridge four is seeing another guy, and everyone’s cool with that, and Kaladin is invested enough in his mens’ happiness to know who the guy is and where he works. It might be stupid to be tearing up about this, but if that’s stupid, well, I’m stupid. 

I’m just so tired of worlds where people like me just don’t exist that any one where they do is deeply moving. 

Also Sigzil drops a cryptic reference to “you know what Teft’s gotten into” which knowing Teft could be, well, literally anything. Anyway, as they keep going Lyn joins them, mentioning that the “unusual request” Kaladin wanted has been filled, and Kal says he’s been noticing that she’s been trying to work with Bridge Four. He asks her to join--she’s hype--and then she realizes that he means as a scribe and just wilts.

LET! LYN! FIGHT!

Sigzil finds himself wanting to punch Kaladin, just a little. And literally repeats Kaladin’s same speech about trying to understand what people actually want out of life back to him and Kal is suitably abashed. And he has gotten his hands on a massive amount of gems, so they can practice being Radiants. 

Blackthorn Flashback! 24 years ago. Evi sometimes has Vasheresque idiomatic translation problems: “the life will be as white as a sun at night!” 

Anyway, Evi is pregnant with Adolin! She and Dalinar are watching the flamespren--she sees it as playing, Dalinar as sparring, and Evi points out that she knows how much Dalinar lived for fighting, and she doesn’t like it. And Dalinar at the very least knows he doesn’t deserve her--good, at least he’s got that straight. Evi is amazing and Dalinar, at this point? A train wreck. He’s still in love with Navani, and notes that he and Navani and Gavilar stayed up talking together--Navani was so interested in what she was doing, but Gavilar ignored her. 

None of these marriages are going great, it seems. And Evi mentions that if you want to change who you are you have to go “petition the One in the Valley.” the Nightwatcher. She seems to refer to her as an aspect of the masculine Almighty, but it suggests that the “Almighty” worshipped in Iri and Rira might be Cultivation. Anyway, Gavilar has shown up. 

Apparently, Rathelas, where Dalinar won Oathbringer, is demanding the Blade back, because he “never won it in a fair contest” and the heir returned. 

...Dalinar couldn’t bring himself to kill the child, could he. He took the Blade but left the boy alive. The Thrill vanished when confronted with a crying child. 

Interesting. I remember how, in Mistborn, being confronted with someone--usually someone young--pleading for their life or, more often, the life of someone else broke Ruin’s influence. Anyway, Evi is so proud that Dalinar spared the baby boy--he gave him to his mother and told her to hide him. 

This. This makes me so happy. Dalinar didn’t kill a child. I mean, he was still a butcher and murderer. But there was a line, there. And Dalinar is happy that, just in this moment, Evi sees him as a hero. 

Over to Bridge Four, again! And an alarming note in the letter: 

You mustn’t worry yourself about Rayse. It is a pity about Aona and Skai, but they were foolish--violating our pact from the very beginning. 

a) Aona and Skai literally died and you’re saying it’s just a “pity” that Rayse murdered them? Wow, asshole b) our pact. Implying that this person is a Shard or something on a similar level of power. 

Anyway, we’re over to Numuhukumakiaki’aialunamor, better known as Rock. Turns out his Horneater nickname is Lunamor. He is making stew back out on the Shattered Plains, and is surprised to realize that he kind of missed them. Renarin is working the Oathgate nearby. They’re training along with some others, including five female scouts. 

Let! Them! Fight!

Anyway, Teft has been gone for a while--he didn’t come back last night. That’s not great. Huio, one of the cousins, is helping Teft cook--he makes a chance to the drinks, Rock is SCANDALIZED, but...it turns out delicious. Bridge Four is pioneering fusion cuisine here. Lopen has accidentally stuck himself to the ground entirely. 

“Just part of the plan, gon!” Lopen called back. “If I am to become a delicate cloud upon the sky, I must first convince the ground that I am not abandoning her. Like a worried lover, sure, she must be comforted and reassured that I will return following my dramatic and regal ascent into the sky.”  “You’re not a king, Lopen,” Drehy said. “We’ve been over this.” 

We’ve been over this. How many times do I have to say I love Bridge Four before the words come anywhere close to conveying my affection for them? It is a mystery.

Kaladin: Rock, do you think you use the term “airsick lowlander” too much Rock: [looks over to where Lopen is STILL stuck with stormlight to the ground, sweet-talking it] Rock: No. 

Rock also invites them all to come visit the Horneater peaks. Anyway, Elhokar has shown up. Kaladin has agreed to reclaim Alethkar and the capital with Elhokar, provided he has a few more weeks to train. Also, Rock finds the old bridge itself--the Bridge of Bridge four. Rock also points out that while he was a soldier once, he always--always--loved being a cook. 

He closed his eyes, kneading and humming his mother’s song to a beat he could almost, barely, just faintly hear. 

Your friendly reminder that Horneaters have Listener blood; seems like some of them, at least, haven’t lost the Rhythms. And when Renarin approaches, Rock yells over to ask him to help with the bread. Interestingly, though, Rock can’t see Glys. Perhaps...he’s just really shy? 

“That one, he will never hold spear again. He will not fly, but he  is Bridge Four. I am forbidden to fight, but I am Bridge Four. And you, you might have fancy title and different powers.” He leaned forward. “But I know Bridge Four. And you, Renarin Kholin, are Bridge Four.” 

And that gets Renarin talking--talking about how everyone always wanted him to be an ardent, because look, he was smart, and look, he was so bright--but he knew that what they were really saying was “wow, you’re not as strong as Adolin” and “wow, it would be great for the line of succession if the sickly one couldn’t inherit.” 

“When you say these things, you are almost not bitter!” Lunamor said. “Ha! Much practice must have been required.”  “A lifetime.” 

HUG RENARIN KHOLIN 2K17

Renarin says he feels like the oddest of them--Rock points to Rlain, Renarin startles and says he’s not sure if Rlain counts (just like Renarin isn’t sure he himself “counts” as Bridge Four) and Rock says, yeah. That’s what everyone tells him. So Renarin goes and sits with Rlain. 

Rock notes that one of his ancestors apparently met an Unmade, but doesn’t elaborate. That’s alarming. And we also get to see all the little ways Rock makes Bridge Four keep working--calming people down, listening, getting them to teach him things when they’re not confident. 

And then Rock sees a group of “strong gods” like Sylphrena gathered around a tall spren woman with long hair, watching the training squires. It’s the most he’s seen, anywhere. Anyway, Syl comes over to talk to him--she mentions that the woman, the large one, is Phendorana, some sort of leader who called her out for searching out Kaladin. 

Apparently, the other honorspren are seeing whether or not anyone in Bridge Four are worthy of being full Radiants. Rock walks back, and sees Hobber--the one whose legs were paralyzed by Szeth--trying desperately to draw out Stormlight from a sphere. 

And he can feel his toes again! Everyone tows all of their gemstones over. 

And then they find a raided caravan--but one of the Voidbringers who did it was brought down. By an unkalaki arrow. 

Lunamor looked to the right, where someone had piled up furniture in a heat, almost like a fortification. A head poked over the top, a stout woman with a round face and a deep red braid. She stood up tall and raised a bow toward Lunamor. Other faces peeked out from behind the furniture. Two youths, a boy and a girl both around sixteen. Younger faces from there. Six in total.  Lunamor dashed toward them and found himself blubbering, tears streaming down his cheeks as he crawled up the outside of their improvised fortification.  His family, at long last, had arrived at the Shattered Plains. 

ROCK’S! FAMILY!

IM SO HAPPY FOR HIM HE DESERVES THIS SO MUCH!!! His wife is Song (Tuaka’li’na’calmi’nor); the twins are Gift and Cord; the next son is also Rock (a different,  smaller kind); the third son is Star, the second daughter Kuma’tiki--a kind of shell not present in the lowlands--and the last daughter is also Song-- “Beautiful Song.” She’s only four--she doesn’t remember him. 

And Renarin,  with healing, managed to save several people’s lives. We also get that something is very wrong with the Peaks. Also, Rock notes that he’s been lying to some of the other men. For example--he’s not really a chef, according to their order of inheritance, it sounds like. It seems like all of his older brothers are dead, which would make him a leader. 

And Bridge Four does one last, final run with their bridge. They won’t need it, anymore--they’ll be flying. 

[nightblink]

Blink Reads Oathbringer - Chapters 64-68

In which I adore Lift, Evi Kholin deserves So Much Better (as per usual), and we finally get the full version of that story that Sigzil was trying to tell Kaladin.

Chapter Sixty-Four – Binder of Gods

...now there's a title for you.

Chapter preface is a Stoneward pleading for someone to heal the rift between the Windrunners and Skybreakers tell them to get their heads out of their asses most likely

Ooo, we're coming back to the Honorblade, finally! Do you think you've found someone worthy to entrust it to, Dalinar?

Ishar was the one that founded the Radiants, interesting. One would assume that Jezrien, 'king of the Heralds', was the one to do so, but no, it was the patron of the Bondsmiths. Makes sense, in that they're all 'bound' by their Oaths, but that's also an aspect of Honor in general.

[snorts] Dalinar cursing by the Stormfather's name and him responding is never going to get old.

Shit, Ishar's maybe more crazy than the rest of the Heralds? That's… saying something.

THE GOD-PRIEST OF TUKAR IS AN ACTUAL HERALD. PFFFFFFT-

omg Stormfather pl e a s e they kind of maybe need that information to help save the world. It might be a good thing to know

….a party trick. What can the Surges of the Bondsmiths do, exactly, Stormfather. You've been a Bondsmith-spren before, did your memory of the Surges degrade as if you were any other spren in the Physical Realm without a bond?

OOP, CONNECTION, CONNECTION, HE MENTIONED IT SPECIFICALLY

[rolls eyes] And of course no answer on who/what the other Bondsmith-spren are, even when asked directly. Stormfather's basically giving us a RAFO.

Oh hot damn, actual information on how the highstorms Invest spheres – a function of all three Realms via the power of a Shard, even Shattered. So, while highstorms existed before the Shards got to Roshar, they probably weren't Invested before that point in time. And while Stormfather now is bound with a Splinter of Honor, he can't Invest a gem at will – that power is not within his control.

AYYYY, B4

And you're giving them the Honorblade! YES GOOD YOU'RE TRUSTING PEOPLE WORTHY OF SAID TRUST THIS TIME. It's good reasoning, too.

Once again, Rock is the voice of calm in the storm.

Are you finally going to get Gawx here? Maybe Lift too? Ahh, but at least Fen decided to set foot in Urithiru! Having another monarch at his side will probably help convince the others that Dalinar isn't the warmongering conqueror that he once was.

g od but I love Queen Fen

….Navani's sending him with lunch? I'll bet a fistful of emeralds here and now that Lift's going to eat it.

All this Dalivani PDA! [scandalized gasp]

“They can't draw in Light and become Radiant; they first must be approaching Radiance, and look for Light to fulfill the promise.” That's… a really, really beautiful line.

DUDE. Ordering the angry soldiers like a Highprince, then binding them like a Radiant. Nice.

!!!! New banner? It's traditional to change the shape of the glyphs when a new Highprince takes command? FFFFFFFT, I- Dalinar's is the Tower and Crown, and that pair won't be passed exactly as it is now to Adolin? What about the Main Clan Kholin glyphs rather than the Branch Clan Kholin – the Sword and Crown is Elhokar's, and it wasn't Gavilar's as well then? SANDERSON I NEED TO KNOW THESE THINGS, I NEED TO KNOW-

Fuck off, Amaram, even when you're not directly in the scene. Just. Fuck off.

Ahahahahahah, so… about Sadeas' murder…

And off to face the Azish. That 'good luck' didn't sound too ominous.

Chapter Sixty-Five – Verdict

[snickers] This time a Willshaper griping about the rules, as well as the tower itself.

[cackles] They're very, very jumpy, likely because he's Dalinar more than because he appeared from nowhere out of the Oathgate. There are probably oodles of out-of-proportion rumors about him this far west. (Even if they weren't exaggerated, this is still Dalinar – the man who was the Blackthorn.)

[cackles even louder] You're still ingrained in your Vorin ways, even the merest hint of religion intertwined with politics is strange and anathema to you, even if the visiers and scions don't quite serve the same function as ardents.

!!! Spiritual Adhesion! To make Connection! Oooo, we're getting to see some of the unique Surges now!

omg the poor soldier, 'HE'S GOT ME CAPTAIN WHAT DO I DOOOO'

“The warlord speaks Azish?” this entire chapter has me nonstop laughing, I swear

An essay as the weapon of choice. Perfect for the Azish. And of course the Thaylen Queen would suggest to argue for economic benefit.

A second essay. GLORIOUS.

A THIRD ESSAY.

BY JASNAH.

This just keeps getting better and better. I feel like they should get a room alone with Jasnah's essay. Honestly.

Uh oh, buried memories about the Rift are trying to surface again…

Protestors attracting logicspren! I love it.

[winces] The Alethi/Vorin class system is nothing to brag about, Dalinar, even internally and not out loud to the Azish.

I… oh my god, the Azish Parshmen argued by the Azish legal rules. Which makes sense, as they are still Azish, just not human-Azish. Ah! And Dalinar's actually noticing that fact!

Oooo, and now you've got yourself questioning not only the power of the sword versus that of the pen, but also the strict Vorin division of gendered disciplines. Good.

LIFT LIFT LIFT

Lift, how I missed you and your delightful approach to things. You are just the person to state things in blunt terms for Dalinar to confront and mull over.

Speaking of delightful, his description of the Azish decoration is great. Back in Alethkar, Adolin probably sensed his thought and felt a moment of despair.

THERE IT IS – 'TIGHT-BUTT'. Bless u Lift

“And your order?” More food.” I am never going to get tired of their interactions.

AYYY, THEY DECIDED TO ACCEPT HIS OFFER. And with the Prime of Azir are coming all sorts of other leaders. For once, things are actually looking up! (Bets on how long that's going to last, anyone?)

Uh oh. That answer of hers - “an animal” - that triggered a resurging memory.

'He remembered what had happened to Evi.'

Well, fuck.

Chapter Sixty-Six – Strategist

Flashbaaaaack~

...does. does 'strategist' here apply to Tiny Adolin (who, at nearly-thirteen, is probably just about to be not-so-tiny). 'So full of energy.' My little ADHD prince, yessss. Look at this boy, look at him learning so enthusiastically! Attending tactical meetings, soaking up everything Dalinar's trying his best to teach him.

Suffer all the hugs, Dalinar. Suffer them. If anything else, I'm glad that you haven't steered your sons away from hugs.

All these years, and Evi still hasn't acclimated to the cold. How cold is eastern Roshar as opposed to the western side? I know they've got the Frostlands bordering Alethkar to the south and southeast, but what kind of average temperature difference are we talking?

Ohhh, Evi's trying, trying so hard to be a Good Vorin Wife, even if she's not particularly interested in reading and other pursuits that the Alethi expect of a woman. She's given up so much of herself and her people to try to fit in. And with Dalinar out on campaign, she tries to divide her time between wherever he is and Kholinar, but he doesn't let Renarin come along? Because he's 'unfit for battle'? Fucking hell, Dalinar – and oh, Evi, separated from one of her sons or her husband no matter where she is! I can't even imagine the stress she must be going through, trying so hard to make her marriage work and care for her sons, all in this cold land that she ran to, that she still might not even consider home despite all the years spent in Alethkar… She deserves better. Evi deserves better than this.

Dalinar's the 'strategist' referred to by the title, of course. Looks like he's finally settled into more of the role we knew him in at first, even if he's still The Blackthorn rather than The Highprince.

Three years since he and Gavilar last met up face to face? Daaamn. And I'll bet in those intervening years that Gavilar's  become more and more invested in his 'Sons of Honor' goals. It's, what, only about three years until he gets assassinated? He's probably putting plans in motion already to attempt to bring about the next Desolation.

The whatever-was-so-terrible event that happened at the Rift is looming on the horizon. This is going to be more than just 'putting down a rebellion'.

“I doubt we will ever settle back in Kholinar again.” Oh, that's… that's not good.

Shit, she's crying.

Seven years. “Yes, I married a soldier. It's my fault for not being strong enough to deal with the consequences. Thank you, Dalinar. You've made that very clear.”

Oh, Evi.

This has been an argument long in the making. She's put up with so much, set aside her own wellbeing and happiness for his sake, and for what? For what.

(Toh is apparently living in Herdaz. I wonder if he's still there in the present time.)

'The argument was her fault, as were the repercussions.' Oh you fucking brick-headed dumbshit sack of trash. GET OVER HERE SO I CAN PUNCH YOU

Chapter Sixty-Seven – Mishim

[squints] 'Mishim' is the name of one of Roshar's moons, isn't it? Alongside Nomon and Salas. Huh. Maybe this means a nighttime mission?

...a Skybreaker notes that 'this generation has had only one Bondsmith', stating it as a Bad Thing, and speculating that it has something to do with Honor. They didn't say which spren it was – the Stormfather or another – so perhaps this was around the time of Honor's Shattering.

Shallan is shaking off her own murder remarkably well, all things considered. She believes the figure she saw in the mirror to be the presence of the Unmade, though, which I hadn't even considered.

[rolls around in glee at the casual, fond Shadolin physical contact]

[facepalms] Elhokar, you really are stuck in denial at this point. Aesudan is either under the influence of the Unmade or dead at this point; there's really not much of an option that she'd be able to resist it.

Gavinor. For once, you say your son's name. I think this might be the first time we've actually heard you say it.

This all sounds like a fairly sound plan. I'm actually rather impressed; Elhokar is doing much better now than he was before. He's much more stable emotionally and has more confidence in his ideas. A gloryspren at a compliment from Adolin, though? I… huh. He really values his cousin's advice and approval. H e r alds I need to write more exploring these two (my kingdom for an Elhokar RPer, seriously)

He married Aesudan for her strength – because of her ambition, not despite it. I really hope we get some more insight into that whole relationship. Gavilar's marriage to Navani didn't exactly give Elhokar the best example to model his own marriage on, and seven years away at war definitely didn't foster any closeness between them.

(considering his Very Obvious Crush on Kaladin, I still wonder if he's gay and only married for the politics and an heir)

Cultural Note: at the tailor shop for women, there's a woman handling the money and a man doing the tailoring work. Looks like in Alethkar those likely aren't gender-locked roles/professions

So. There's at least one food stockpile in this area. Still don't know where it came from, but it's under the control of a minor lighteyes – one whose soldiers and scribes aren't the best at their jobs.

'Storming lighteyes'. Veil. You may be a personality that Shallan based on her understanding and imagining of a darkeyed Alethi woman but that's still Shallan's perception. Kaladin – and his more-than-justified dislike of lighteyes – you ain't. Be critical of the lord's practices all you want, but remember that you're a lighteyes too. You can't erase that fact.

Those altered angerspren are… thematically appropriate, but also creepy as fuck.

HOID. WIT. WIT WIT WIT

Oh! This is the story that Sigzil was trying to tell! But, true to form, Hoid does it with a vivacity and flair unlike any other.

Interesting – the Rosharans, or at least the Alethi, personify two of the moons as female (Mishim and Salas) and one as male (Nomon).

Wit can Lightweave, and he definitely uses it in some of his storytelling, but this – this is skill of the hand (and maybe something a little extra woven in). He's pretty much immortal, so he's definitely had time to practice!

….what did you see in your pack, Wit. Do you have a Radiant-dar.

HAH. Whether he does or doesn't, he just saw right through Shallan's illusion – either literally or figuratively doesn't matter – and she knows that he knows.

WAIT HOLY SHIT IT'S SHALLAN AGAIN, I JUST REALIZED. WHERE- [flips back a few pages] Wit's voice. She was Veil before that, and as soon as we got 'What was that sound?' she immediately shifts back to Shallan again.

I am loving the mythology behind the Natan people's blue skin. We may not have an actual explanation for that yet – knowing Sanderson, there is one – but I am definitely content for now. We got a Hoid Story, after all, and more cultural worldbuilding on top of that.

“I miss my flute.” GO BUG KALADIN FOR IT ONCE HE GETS BACK

You do have a Radiant-dar. In a jar.

Chapter Sixty-Eight – Aim for the Sun

Coming from a story about one of the moons, now we have a chapter title referencing the sun? (I will not yell about characters I associate with the sun and this being a Shallan chapter, I will not-)

This Elsecaller's recording sounds like it could be Jasnah from another place and time. What is this 'Sibling' that they mention though?

Shallan's observation notes the Alethi proprietor of this place as short, but honestly, for an Alethi, that just means around five-ten to six-foot, right?

I have missed Wit so much. So much.

Ooop, guess you should be taking thieving lessons from him, hmm?

I'm not sure the universe knows why it puts up with you, Hoid, or even if you do yourself.

“The persona...fled once you recognized me.” You mean Veil dissipated when your subconscious realized it was Wit's voice you were hearing – perhaps because of the safety/assurance you associate with him? Because these personas are protecting you – a more solid form of a mask against the world, so that you don't have to deal with things like your lighteyed privilege and lack of knowledge about people and the world in general (Veil) or your trauma regarding Pattern-as-a-Blade and killing your mother with him (Radiant) – once you heard Wit, that mask just wasn't there. There was no transition, nothing. Just… poof.

….I suddenly have a mighty need to hear about these seven time you got mixed up in religion, Hoid.

The way he speaks makes me wonder if Wisdom is a Shard, and Shallan just isn't hearing the capitalization.

Oh, we haven't seen her get in a back-and-forth this delightful since back with her early times with Jasnah, maybe even as far back as the first book! I'm getting the feeling that this conversation is really pulling the Shallan part of Shallan to the foreground.

OH MAN WIT DIDN'T KNOW SADEAS WAS KILLED. “Storms, no. I'd have applauded.” And perhaps even composed a jig on the spot in memory of the occasion.

[hums] There's the title drop, and in a much more understandable context than my silent screaming off to the side.

Oh, Shallan. As composed as Wit seems to be from the outside, once again your perception remains remarkably superficial. Did you catch nothing from the moment that you looked into his eyes and saw mountains crumbling? Though the ability to “change things”… yes, that'd be an enviable one. Even so, the way that Hoid does it isn't the way that you necessarily should.

“For men never see as far as they think they do.” Ooof. And isn't that the truth. Even ones like Dalinar who try to change it for the better don't know how that stone will eventually end up.

He's right. Be wary of Hoid, Shallan. He may be an ally, but he would let Roshar crumble to save the Cosmere. What he might in the end term the best and most necessary way to handle things may not be in the favour of you and yours.

“The Heart of the Revel”. The Unmade. So. It has influence over the members of the cult, and especially so over those of… perhaps not the inner circle, but 'those in the know'. Even if Wit can get you in, it won't be an easy infiltration.

“You already know how. Learn why.” Oh, now there's a question to ask. This being Shallan, she'll internalize and contemplate a question like that better than she would an outright story and Hoid knows it.

“He said he'd treat me like a king.” [SNORTS] Considering how he's treated kings in the past? You're getting off well on this one, good innkeeper.

Hoid feels like a spren to Pattern? Or by 'one of us' does he instead mean like a Radiant – that's the real question.

[nightblink]

Blink Reads Oathbringer - Chapters 33-38

Part Two – New Beginnings Sing

That title alone has me really hyped for this Part, you guys.

Also, Bridge Four as a POV? The entirety of Bridge Four? Sanderson you have given us a gift.

Chapter Thirty-Three – A Lecture

“Dearest Cephandrius” OH OH WE'RE GETTING LETTERS BACK FROM THE DRAGON NOW

That is a great sketch of Urithiru too. We need a person or chull or something down at the bottom for scale, though.

Jasnaaaaaaaaaahhhh

“All she'd done was grope an eldritch spren.” Yeah, and opened yourself in order to beat it back – no matter that the others did the physical fighting, that fact that you didn't pass out on the spot after that is, frankly, amazing.

Shallan, you already know that stormlight can make a Radiant extremely resistant to dying, and you're still this surprised that Jasnah sauntered back into your life?

Like the branch clan, Jasnah is Kholin Extra™

That crystal pillar sounds like a work of art, and symbolic of all ten orders of the Radiants that once lived there. Please please please let us see it infused at some point!

Shallan, your crush is showing again.

A lecture, hah! You are still technically her ward, and its entirely like Jasnah to just slide right back into that pre-established relationship as if nothing had happened.

[hums] The difference from what I can tell is that fabrials aren't powered by sentient spren, but ones that are the nature-forces, with no mind of their own.

Ooo, you're used to being the one giving the orders rather than ordered around now, and the change grates on you. Someone comes back who's always had authority over you and you realize how much you liked the power.

So. About those Ghostbloods, Jasnah…

You've been trying to impersonate an Elsecaller while not even knowing about Transportation, Shallan? That's a glaring oversight.

Ooo, speaking of which, apparently Transport – or at least Transport when the body passes into the Cognitive Realm entirely – isn't so simple as a Teleport spell.

Jasnah has a lot of catching up to do. (And not only with the current state of events, but also the fact that pretty much all of her family save her mother are mentally fraying apart.)

Chapter Thirty-Four – Resistance

YES YES YES TIME FOR DALINAR TO KICK DOWN SOME MENTAL DOORS

Mmm, good choice of vision. It'll let her see monsters and Radiants both, and throw an emotional weight behind the vision that some of the others don't have.

That's. Huh. I wasn't expecting that sort of philosophy from the Stormfather either. That's an entirely new side to him than we've ever seen before.

Heights – or sudden flying – aren't your thing, I see. Then again, after being tossed into the sky to fall and die by Szeth… understandable.

Tell us more about Plate, I need more information on Plate-

Oooo, yes, Navani and Jasnah are used to analysis, picking things apart piece by piece and extracting all the relevant detail. They'd both be the best picks for this – although Shallan with her eye for art would be a good counterpoint in observation.

“You will know or you will not.” That's so very helpful, Stormfather.

Yeah, it's not going the same as before – her involvement will change it differently than yours did.

The Midnight Essence isn't a true creature, but a monster, and you now know that the Midnight Mother is behind these things and the mirror-murders both.

Fling-and-stick! Like an al dente ramen noodle

There's the Queen! Where Dalinar fought his way through this vision, she organized a resistance – and in so little time! Wow, if I didn't already like her before, this would seal the deal.

Yes, best not to mention your little God-is-dead heresy. People haven't been taking kindly to that so far, no reason to assume that Queen Fen will either.

Okay, good, we're getting to the meat of the matter. Fen has very good reason not to trust you, Dalinar, and while these visions are convincing, you need to convince her now. Time is not on your side.

“Am I? Oh, let me storming reconsider, then.” Finally, the honesty straight to his face. And that's the breaking point.

This is another point I'd like so see animated. Passion indeed – Dalinar here is all snapping fire.

Oh my god Dalinar, you are the center of all the hot gossip on the networks. Never mind that it's all blown out of proportion, you did say and do some pretty radical things. Hearing about it from an outside perspective, it really does sound like you went off the deep end – with an enthusiastic leap, at that.

At least Fen might listen now. It's a much better chance than you had before.

Chapter Thirty-Five – First Into the Sky

Bridge Fooooouuuurrrrrr

Sigzil! We're getting Sigzil POV!

The mental image of B4 scrambling up for breakfast from Rock is absurdly heartwarming and just the sort of thing we need to lift the tone around all the other coming-of-the-apocalypse chapters.

Shhhh, you'd look good with an afro, Sigzil.

I keep snickering every time they refer to breathing stormlight as 'eating' the sphere. But oh, that'sa nice detail – the B4 tattos remain, but underneath them the slave brands are healed. Bridge Four is a part of him, but he doesn't consider the slave brands as part of himself, or he's somehow overcome them.

LOPEN PLZ

Lopen is forever a gift to this world.

Awww, poor Sig, annoyed at his height amongst all these 'what-is-under-six-feet' Alethi.

“the other thing”? What other thing. Sigzil. What's up with Teft.

Everyone's dream: to walk in on Kaladin doing morning push-ups, probably with his sleeves rolled up to the elbow

You just need more staff to help handle things, Sigzil, you're just getting pushed to the limits of what you can do with what you have.

Bridge Four getting families yesssss. These people deserve all the happiness they can find.

[snorts] Of course Sigzil's reaction to learning Drehy is gay is “b-but the paperwork!” And Sig, it's not that there aren't forms for that in Alethkar, it's that the Alethi just don't do things the same way as the Azish.

Sigzil trying to emulate Hoid and tell a story! That's actually a really great way to get through to Kaladin. That “Hush” though, hah. The drawback is that you're… not quite as good at this as Hoid is. Then again. Hoid.

What has Teft gotten into.

Oooo, shit, Kaladin, that was harsh.

That's a good point about recruitment, and if some of them actually start becoming full Windrunners like Kaladin as well. I can't imagine they'd want to split off, but remaining integrated with the rest of the bridge crew would be its own set of challenges.

Oh. Oh, Kal, that's not…. That's the same mistake Shallan made, I think.

LET HER(?) FIGHT

Thank you for that echo, Sigzil.

Sigzil does seem the type to want a “proper” hierarchy in place, with clearly set positions. It makes sense to him and gives him a sense of security. Kaladin being referred to as a lighteyes by one of his own bridgemen, though, ooof.

Everstorm Count: 3

Thank the Almighty we have you around to ask these questions, Sigzil. They don't know yet that Dalinar plans to split from Alethkar, but all of those questions still need to be considered, and on a larger scale than just Alethkar.

First into the air, oh, Sigzil

….the royal emerald reserve. The royal emerald reserve. Hooooooly shitto da. Kaladin, you're lucky that Elhokar's got a massive crush on you. Dalinar probably just had to say “for Bridge Four's practice” and Elhokar was already chucking the bags at him.

Chapter Thirty-Six – Hero

YESSSS, FLASHBACK CHAPTER

Wait, twenty-four years? Wasn't the last one something like twenty-eight or twenty-nine? Are… are we not getting Dalinar's early years with Evi? The courtship, even a tiny scene of the marriage? Nothing. Goddamn it, Sanderson, this is a crime. I'm disappointed in you.

Evi liked needlework! Ahh, that's good to know~

Once again she proves herself a snuggler, I love it. And instead of shying away from it like last time, Dalinar's fine with it-

She's pregnant with Adolin she's pregnant with Adolin-! And she calls Dalinar 'beloved'! Asdajfdhjgdhadhjd Sanderson why did you deprive us of their relationship developmeeeeent

So he's still continually itching for a fight, he's just not as bloodthirstily lusting for it anymore. Or he's repressing it. That's… hmmm. I don't think as much of the fight's gone out of him as we're seeing.

'He'd never had a high opinion of dueling.' Oh shit, so how did that colour your early opinion of your elder son's Calling…?

...okay so one, now we know where Adolin gets his perceptiveness from; two, that's a disturbing train of thought. Only alive when he's tasting death on the air. That also explains why he's so relatively subdued at the moment. The fact that she says “like a blackness from the old stories” actually makes me wonder if he is under the influence of something more at this point – perhaps even one of the Unmade.

!!! okay so Rirans have blond hair but still possibly canonically the metallic golden skin tint. I'm still clutching to the subtle!metallics but we'll see how far this takes us

He still doesn't feel any actual love for her at this point. Uuugh, Dalinar, you don't deserve Evi.

Ooo, I can see why Navani dismissed Evi so easily back in TWoK. That sort of attitude on curiosity and discovery is something she'd automatically recoil from.

And Gavilar paid no attention to Navani while she spoke of her passions. That's not a positive indication of the kind of husband he was.

They share enough tenets that the friction between the two religions can pop up almost out of nowhere – they think the other is following their train of thought, and then nope.

Now Gavilar comes in with news of the Rift – they did go there a second time. But why-

You didn't kill the kid. You didn't kill the kid.

Gavilar's not happy, but it's at least giving him a chance to solve things via politics. Which is not going to happen in the end, not if something so terrible happened at the rift that it caused one of Dalinar's own elites to turn to the ardentia.

But in this moment, Dalinar's heart flared for Evi.

Chapter Thirty-Seven – The Last Time We March

….that dragon does not seem at all concerned enough about Odium, and he's just brushing Devotion and Dominion's loss aside as if it were an inevitability, and not even a regrettable one. But how did they “violate [the] pact”, and what did that agreement entail?

MORE BRIDGE FOOOUUUURR

I'll admit that I spent a good few minutes staring at the page and sounding out Rock's name until I got it right.

They're back on the Shattered Plains for a night? I wonder why...

I like the softer feel of contemplation we're getting here. There's less momentum to the writing, but it needed this slow-down. Like the stew, it's a comfort.

Oh ho, this is where they've come to practice! YESSSS. The wind across the plains, whipping through the chasms, the open sky and the high drop of the sheer sides – this is where they practiced before, it's just a new kind now.

Five women! Yesssssss, thank you Kaladin for shoving aside Alethi cultural boundaries on fighting being restricted to men.

Lopen, you are a gem

Rock – Lunamor – should absolutely take credit for that. A good breakfast can set the tone for the entire morning.

“Peet, don't think I haven't seen you glowing.” PFFFFFFT

….Teft is still absent. That's not encouraging.

“their true shapes beyond the streamers” Wait, what? A larger body to the spren? Can Rock see a shadow or echo of the spren as they are in the Cognitive Realm?

[cackles] Introducing Rock to new flavor combinations will save your skin. Messing with his dishes otherwise? You've earned that death sentence.

Lopen oh my god you are the brightest ray of sunshine on the Plains, you crazy, amazing, reckless idiot

Ohhhh, Hobber

Kaladin is a bundle of emotion held together by love and promises and Syl and covered in a stone shell. A thin one.

R o c k you are also a gift unto this world. First you make Kaladin happy then you give us 'airsick lowlander, second class'.

Lopen. I. I don't even. How.

Kaladin, you're going to lose people. I know you refuse to accept it, to save them all, to grieve with acute pain at every loss, but… Rock's right. You being you, though, you'll never accept that. And that's as it should be.

Please take your giant dysfunctional, crazy-ass family to visit the Peaks, Rock. By the point when you actually get the time to do so, they and you will all probably be able to fly up there anyway.

Elhokar! And here I thought you'd have a golden circlet rather than a silver one in order to match your glyphpair.

A few weeks as a timeline before they send in their Strike Team to Kholinar. Mmmm. On one hand, I don't like them leaving the city and its Oathgate under riot and/or occupation for that long, but on the other, they have a much better chance of retaking it if they have a Radiant or few more, or at least a few more squires practiced in their power.

!!! Their old bridge! The actual bridge of Bridge Four! Tough wood indeed.

Of course they brought the cauldrons along. There's more to Bridge Four than just the fighting. There's more to their heart than just courage in battle. Bridge Four was forged around Rock's cooking fire, and that remains part of the core of them.

“a beat he could almost, barely, just faintly hear.” That's as good as confirmed that the Listener blood can run strong enough in some lines that they can sense the Rhythms. Rock, we still need clarification on what those “particular heritage and blessings” are.

Renarin! Speaking of more members of Bridge Four~ Your place isn't with your cousin right now, 'Rin; it's with your Bridge.

Oh my god. Please. We've already had Elhokar psuedo-adoped by a Herdazian matriarch, so can we please get a scene of Rock absconding with Dalinar to have him help make bread.

Why is Glys still hiding? And where? I assume he's in the fidget-box, but that's just an assumption.

Thank the Heralds for Rock knowing how to treat and talk with Renarin. He needs friends who aren't his brother. And Rock… Rock's honest and knows how to state things in a way that Renarin can absorb well.

Ohhh, 'Rin you're thinking that you're not… No. Fix that perception, Rock. He's Bridge Four, he'll always be Bridge Four.

Almost not bitter. But being bitter is an inescapable part of Renarin Kholin. Burning bitterness, biting his tongue, pride, and a wish to be himself but not knowing what that means.

[hums] You want to fight because your father wants it, true, but it's what you yourself want as well, isn't it. And the other things… you eschew them because you don't want to be an ardent, and others assumed, forced those assumptions on you and expected you to follow them, then were confused when you didn't – but did it pain you to abandon things you were naturally good at and maybe even liked?

(You are a light in your own right, Renarin, who you are and who you want to be. Some people already see it. Rock. Adolin. Other people can come to see it too.)

Can we get some Renarin+Rlain interaction now, BrandoSando. Please. What do I have to pay you for it.

Does anyone else think Rock would make a great fellow Truthwatcher? He already sees things that others do not, and has a tendency to see straight to the heart of a matter. Not that those are prerequisites or anything, but. Just saying.

Lunamor please do share that story about your great-great-great grandfather later though please, because some of us want very much to hear it.

Ahhhhh! Are there actual honorspren watching the squires? Perhaps debating making a bond? Yessssssss, come on, do the thing-! (Or at least consider!)

How much interaction do the Unkalaki have with spren, I wonder, with Rock's way of showing reverence so different from almost all the other cultures we've encountered on Roshar?

Not so much animated, but I'd like to see a picture of this scene, Rock heading out with his offerings and bowing deep before the gathered Honorspren, the greatest of them acknowleging him with an outstretched hand and receiving his offering. Lovely.

Oh, oh, is Hobber going to-

HE DID IT

aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh Bridge Four

...smoke on the Plains? Trouble?

This bridge run though – resplendent with stormlight, singing their marching beat – what once was a source of terror and despair is a vision of glory now.

Shit, it was an attack by fliers. Without the Alethi armies that once assaulted them, they'll take every chance to pick off what stragglers they can.

Alert, alert – someone on Roshar called a bird something other than a chicken

Yes! Yes! FINALLY WE MEET ROCK'S FAMILY

A wife and six lovely children – six! - but the youngest is too young to even truly remember him, oh my heart breaks for him… And even he thinks of the cracks in his soul that have changed him further from the man they knew than a simple year's passage could.

Oh no, something is wrong on the Peaks, but… isn't that where it's theorized that the Shardpool is located?

The last run of the bridge. It's sad… but a good kind of melancholy.

Chapter Thirty-Eight – Broken People

Time for the next vision-conversation! And this is a vision segment that we haven't seen before, excellent, though so fair it's just a straight-up battle.

“Dalinar smiled to hear a fragment of God cursing.” We all are, Dalinar. It's immensely satisfying to see you surprise this millenia-old Sliver.

Oh, shit, humans fighting for the Voidbringers as well? That's kind of important information, Dal!

Wait. There was no Everstorm in Desolations past? Wh a t

Okay, okay, so amber shardplate belongs to Stonewards (not Bondsmiths, that must be a more golden-ish colour) and that stone-ripple Surge was Tension. Huh. Huh. We need more information on how Tension works, because that was not at all what I was expecting.

“Welcome to my madness, ladies.” DALINAR PL E A S E

'Devices' that provide healing – way back when they somehow managed to create healing fabrials, and that's what the lady Stoneward of his 'midnight essence vision' used the first time he experienced it. That's definitely a piece of equipment that Navani needs to start working on as soon as possible.

Your uncle has a point, Jasnah. He out-stubborned the Stormfather.

Speaking of stubbornness, of course Navani managed to gently bully her way into getting a look at the fabrial

Interesting. I'd expected a conversation about religion considering how they started, but this… this is something that Dalinar would indeed have far more trouble dealing with. He knows his own faith, but all these external lies and accusations keep building up and no one is taking his own word. Of all people, Jasnah understands this the most.

Renarin just got much the same speech from Lunamor, in an entirely different manner.

They've been viewing the old fabrials wrong. Huh. But in what way?

Aharietiam.

Will they see the Heralds here? Or the circle of Honorblades struck into the stone? Could Dalinar have missed the true point of the vision in his first time through, so long ago?

Honor was yet unShattered when the Heralds broke their vow

But. The Stormfather was still a Bondsmith!spren back during the previous Desolations. He's noted as “one of three spren who can bond with humans to create a Bondsmith” in The Pocket Companion to The Stormlight Archive. So. He wasn't a true Splinter back during those days. He's become more powerful since that time.

Oh shit I was right. The circle of Honorblades. They now have enough information to recognise what it means. The Heralds lied.

Navani's world suddenly turned upside down. It's one thing to hear Dalinar claim that 'God is dead', but to see these blades and hear the Heralds lied confirmed by the Stormfather himself? It's earth-shattering.

That's what the Voidspren with Venli meant when it said that their ancestors led them – yet were not alive. They're stuck in a cycle of never-ending torturous rebirth. Fuck.

Each time, the Heralds could withstand less torture. The time between Desolations started to decrease exponentially. Hundreds of years, to tens, and finally less than a year between Desolations? No wonder society could never rebuild itself! No wonder they decided to break the Oathpact!

Looks like even the Stormfather can change, if even a little. As the Nahel bond alters the ones like honorspren and cryptics, even one as great as the Stormfather can feel its effect.

Taln never broke before. All those Desolations, and it was never him. It took him by himself, bearing the entire horror of Damnation for four and a half thousand years to break him.

Damn.

Damn.

And now because the Oathpact is so weak, Odium was able to create the Everstorm. And the spren of the dead do not return to Damnation.

“Were you to know it, you would abandon your oaths as the ancient Radiants did.” W h a t

What secret was even more terrible than this one. What secret was so damning that the Radiants would kill their spren and leave their own souls split open and unraveling.