#adolins all like my dad is a much better man than me

[spectral-honey]

Adolin: I'm such a bad person, I'll never live up to my father, hes so great and noble

Dalinar's flashbacks of his youth:

[kandra-chameleon]

I really don’t understand the deep running Lirin hate in this fandom although I have my theories and I might expand on that . The dude honestly tries so hard with Kaladin and his entire arc is about learning to be flexible and admit he’s actually wrong in the way he’s going about it? He genuinely loves all three of his kids so much and he wants so desperately for them to be happy... he just doesn’t get that he’s doing the whole “round peg square hole” thing and he’s frustrated. Also like, he and Hesina straight up believed Kaladin had died. Like, they had mourned both of their sons at the hands of Roshone’s recruitment and as they’re finally making peace and trying to continue a normal life Kaladin rocks up, all glowing and traumatised and tells them that literally everything they’ve ever believed was incorrect. I think maybe we need to give him a bit more credit for struggling to adjust to everything.

Like I just saw a post calling Lirin “the worst father in the cosmere” and I’m really salty about it. This dude that coesxists with Gavilar Kholin and Lin Davar??? You know that Straff Venture is also a character in the cosmere yes??? Lirin really resonates with me bc my parents loved me so much and genuinely tried so hard with my mental health, but ultimately have done a lot of things that messed me up too, and they’re still learning to be better with it, just like Lirin eventually does. But sometimes I’ll mention something that they do/have done and their immediate reaction is still defensive or will tell me I’m in the wrong; not because they’re bad people, not because they’re bad parents, my parents are fantastic, but because they’re not always equipped to help and because they don’t react well to that. My dad is a doctor and he hates that he can’t help me when I’m not well. Especially when I was at my absolute lowest and wasn’t being honest with them, he was bull headed and frustrating trying to do “what was right” and it pushed us even further apart. And the things dad tried to do wouldn’t have helped, I know this for a fact, but if I had been more willing to be honest and open with him, we could maybe have come to a compromise sooner. Let’s be honest here: when was the last time Kaladin fostered any kind of healthy conversation with Lirin?

Just !!! The whole arc of Lirin’s character in RoW is accepting who Kaladin is and how to work with him (something Kaladin has been actively working against in spite of all Lirins- admittedly blundering but ultimately well meaning- attempts). Come on, guys, the most important step a man can take is the next one, and Lirin is learning that lesson in the most human way any of the rest of them are.

((Also can’t help but think that if Lirin weren’t Kaladin’s dad he wouldn’t get half the hate he does bc people seem to have forgiven Dalinar for literally killing the mother of his children and ignoring Renarin for most of his formative years. And Lirin didn’t push being a surgeon on Kal any more than Dalinar pushed becoming a solider on Adolin. Both of them equated parenting to forcing societal expectations on their oldest son, Lirin just committed less war crimes :\\))

[velkynkarma]

So I wasn’t feeling so good a couple of weeks ago, and started reading The Way of Kings again as a comfort book while I felt like garbage. At first I just intended to pick through and read the Kaladin bits (since I was not feeling that great), but then there was a Shallan chapter and Shallan is great so I read that, and before I knew it I’d finished the first part, and then it was a Dalinar chapter and I just couldn’t skip Dalinar, and then there was more Kaladin, and then suddenly I finished the book again. For the manyeth time. 

Rereading after the events of Oathbringer hurts. Moash, man. Why. You had potential. Though, even back in the first book, now that I know what to look for, it’s like he only has two states of being: utter apathy, or extreme extremist. When he doesn’t believe in Kaladin he’s one of Kaladin’s biggest detractors. When he does follow Kaladin—only after he’s witnessed Kaladin’s skill with a spear—he’s alarmingly gung ho, to the point that even in book one Kaladin is reeling him in. He wants to steal all the spheres from the chasms, even when Kaladin points out it’ll get them caught. He wants to attack the guards on multiple occasions, even when it won’t help them. He’s almost bloodthirsty about following Kaladin into the final battle. If he has a goal to reach for, he’s ready to go to extreme lengths to reach it. But if he doesn’t have a goal, something he really believes in and wants more than anything, he’s utterly apathetic and lacks any kind of drive or initiative. I can’t help but wonder what that will mean in the future, especially since he’s such a volatile character in the fandom right now. 

Kaladin’s whole story arc still makes me so happy. I love reading his journey from slave to Stormblessed once again. He remains in his Favorite Character status and has yet to be unseated. 

Elhokar hurts even worse, after Oathbringer. His whole subplot, being terrified of assassins and paranoid about the faces he’s seeing, desperate to get people to listen to him and believe him...it’s so much more upsetting, now that I know what it all means. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened, if they’d figured out what he was seeing in WOK, or WOR. Where would his story have gone? What could he have done to change the world?

Adolin’s story is, as always, a wild one to me whenever I go back and reread WOK. I adore Adolin as a character, but I didn’t always. My love for his character really began partway through Words of Radiance, when we started seeing more of his personality outside of interacting with Dalinar. In WOK, Adolin is just...a jock, really. He’s a noble obsessed with dueling, fashion, and women, dating a different lady every week, and annoyed with his dad for having dumb stupid rules that his friends don’t have to follow. He has his moments—like in one of Kaladin’s chapters, when he steps in to save that courtesan just because it’s the right thing to do—but by and large, I wasn’t a fan of him. But he starts to do some really amazing stuff in WOR and Oathbringer, and you see a softer side of him then—one that’s more affectionate (even physically, demonstrably so), more friendly, more supportive, and more willing to do the right thing. So it’s always strange, going back to WOK and seeing Adolin acting more like a brat. I know he’ll get better, but it’s still weird. 

Kaladin may remain my favorite character, but my favorite WOK scene still to this day remains the moment when Dalinar trades his shardblade for the lives of every single bridgeman. I just love that moment, when Kaladin is so convinced that Dalinar will be like every other lighteyes, honorable in superficial name only, and then Dalinar proves him utterly wrong and then practically adopts him. That moment took my breath away the first time I read it, and it continues to every time I read it again. 

I fucking love this book. I fucking love this series. I forgot that I felt like garbage when I was reading it. This book never fails to make me happy. 

[xianglingslesbian]

way of kings, Satsuki’s moving castle (👀), Daiki’s basketball (👀👀), oh no he’s hot, and unstoppable force/immovable object pls

ah hihi! ty for the ask!! <3 this got very long so i am putting it under a cut

the way of kings

this is basically just a knb stormlight au lmaooo. i actually dont have much yet its just a vague outline and the main character placements. i also have to work out a LOT of stuff bc. heralds. i’ll list the placements i have for now!!

kaladin - hyuuga OR aomine i really cannot decide smh. EDIT HOLY SHIT MIDORIMA IS THE PERFECT KALADIN 

adolin - kise bc you cant tell me that ‘“fight me!” adolin said’ isn’t PEAK kise energy

shallan - .......izuki. puns? puns. also yay for shared insecurity complexes and refusal to address their own mental health

dalinar - kasamatsucchi <3 he has the eyebrows and the blue uniform don’t @ me

jasnah - uhh araki, solely because i didn’t wanna change au!jasnah’s gender. otherwise 100% would have been midorima

sadeas - imayoshit :) everyone flip off the manipulative bastard

renarin - kurokooooo!! okay but the idea of a person construed as weak finding their own way in the world is really similar b/w these two

sylphrena - momoi <333 syl rlly do have momoi energy tbh

i do have a couple more placements BUT idk where ur at in the series and it could be a potential spoiler so i’m gonna shut up now. tagging @serenesavagery bc i think she’d like this ily saori

satsuki’s moving castle

ok here’s an AU i actually have shit planned out for (and some chapters written) lmaooo it’s a momoi/riko howl AU!! riko = sophie + momoi = howl is rlly fun to write lol. also aomine is calcifer bc let’s be real that tiny fire demon was basically just demon!aomine. the chapter titles in this one are gold tbh i’m really proud of them -- examples are, “Do YOU Want A Charming Stranger To Sweep You Off Your Feet? [Not Clickbait]” and “Riko Aida Presents - Being Old Sucks, Part 1/? (Also, There's A Demon But That’s Not Important)”.

tiny snippet: 

Riko could feel the stirrings of heat in her cheeks as Satsuki pressed against her, arm laying on her hand. 

“Let me,” she said sweetly. Dazed, Riko did so, moving aside so Satsuki had better access to the food. 

“Hand me a couple of eggs and some more bacon, please,” Satsuki instructed. Riko complied, doing her best to keep her composure. This was the wicked wizard Satsuki, not just any pretty girl - she had to be on her guard. 

Satsuki cooked much the same way Riko did, planting a few doubts in the now-aged girl’s mind. Eggshells in the eggs, blackened bacon… perhaps her cooking really was bad.

Then again, from what she’d seen of Junpei, he did have a tendency to exaggerate.

“no its totally not gay for a girl to cook over your shoulder what do you mean” - aida riko, circa 1920 (approx. when this is set bc it follows the ghibli movie)

daiki’s basketball

yes its an aomine-kuroko roleswap yes i like torturing myself because it comes w/the bonus of inflicting this upon my readers. it’s my first multichapter, and like ewbts it’s also half posted and then i realised how shittily i’d written it so i started rewriting smh. the only redeemable bit about v1 is the summary bc it’s good for my summary standards: 

tetsu had changed. tetsu was no longer his partner. but daiki saw that same spark in kagami, and even if he wasn’t one for sappy romantic stuff like tetsu, maybe this time… maybe this time the light he picked would stay with him.

im not crying you are

a small snippet: 

“Well, you like painting. Maybe paint a basketball on the school wall or something?” Satsuki suggested absently, still looking at the giant chocolate fountain. It couldn’t hurt to go in and try it, right?

“Thanks, Satsuki.” Daiki’s voice had a sudden spark to it, and Satsuki’s eyes shot wide as she realised what she’d said.

“No - Dai, wait! You can’t-” But he’d already cut the call.

Oh, God save Satsuki Momoi.

(yes. he did actually. paint the fucking school wall. god save momoi indeed)

oh no he’s hot

this is an older idea but one i still love tbh! i have to work around the setting bc i wanna set it in not-america 😂 i have a summary written up which describes it well so i will plug it: 

Everything was in place. Zuko would have adopted Izumi by this time tomorrow; would have met the demands of his company; would be a father, the best one that he could. He had to admit he was a little more than excited - it’s not every day that you get to be a father, and especially not to a firecracker like Izumi. Now, if only Izumi’s social worker weren’t this attractive… and if only he weren’t the same man that Zuko had been absolutely, abominably horrible to the previous week.

its a zukka modern AU in which zuko is running his dad’s company after ousting ozai, and the board pressures him to get an heir. ace gay bean zuko decides he’ll adopt instead. also azula/katara subplot with katara being an intern at azula’s hospital (NOT in charge of azula tho bc that can lead to some weird power dynamics). highkey slowburn romance tbh. zukka hate each other for only a bit, but the friendzoning is unreal lmao

immovable object meets unstoppable force

this is a set of legend of korra rewrite oneshots! basically im trying to fix all the colorism, sexism and other issues + give a better rep to korrasami bc lbr we deserved more development. also side character rights <3 

i actually have posted one fic of it here so i suppose this counts as a snippet? its pema/lin hahaha yay for lesbians

--

thank you so much for this ask i just really ran away with it i get excited talking about my projects and wow now i have fuel for daiki’s basketball again so that might just be the one i finish soonest <3 

[mxlxdroit]

i finished oathbringer!

yay! *confetti*

i can now unblock the oathbringer tag! woohoo!

it took me a month and a half to finish this book, all 1200-odd pages of it, and unfortunately, i’ve gotten a bit of book exhaustion. i enjoyed reading it, but it’s like reading a long trilogy of books in a very short amount of time, so i’m probably going to wait a while before tackling another cosmere book so i can get a breather and read some other stuff.

first off, i liked this book a lot! so much happened i’m not gonna go back and recap too many specific points right now, but there are a few things that i think were particularly important.

TL;DR oathbringer was good and had a lot of cute and funny stuff but it dragged a bit and got a bit too heavy for me a few times. i’m now shakadolin trash, Dalinar’s like fifty and he finally storming learned how to read, Lopen and his spren flipped off the Stormfather, and there are lots of good messages about agency and responsibility. oh, and lots of people stabbing each other

thematically, a lot of oathbringer is about choosing to take responsibility for your actions (or not. looking at you, Moash). this is most clear in Dalinar’s case, as his main character development is confronting the evil he did in his past, including killing his wife and burning thousands of people to death along with her. he has to admit what he did and take responsibility for it within himself in order to be able to resist Odium (speaking of which, What Is Up with Cultivation? i feel like i know so little about her. since Honor and Odium have spren and surges and all that jazz does Cultivation have them, too? D: i don’t know). Adolin has to admit to killing Sadeas, Venli has to realize that bringing back the Fused was a bad call, and the entire human race have to figure out what to do when they learn that they are the Voidbringers and invaded Roshar (i’m sure this is going to be a prominent theme in Stormlight 4, because it’s a huge deal and they barely talked about it). Not only do the characters have to confront their pasts and the truths there, however unpleasant, they have to decide what to do next. the story doesn’t end with a big reveal. life goes on, and they have to decide what steps to take and what future they want. the most important step a person can take is the next, if you will. in many ways, that is what the Ideals of the Radiants are for- life sucks, so what are you going to do to make it a little less terrible? and therein lies the connection between responsibility and agency. Moash’s internal dialogue about how nothing he regrets is his fault also means that none of the good things he’ve done belong to him. he gives up ownership over his life and himself and gives away his agency. he won’t be able to make meaningful decisions about his own life because he doesn’t want to anymore. Dalinar, on the other hand, accepts all of his past as his, including the good he has done, accepting his own agency over his actions and allowing himself to use his experiences to inform his decisions in the future.

on a kind of related point, honesty also leads to forgiveness. Shallan has to forgive herself for things that weren’t her fault and find a way to acknowledge the horrors of her past without letting them consume her. she isn’t all the way there- i don’t know if she’ll ever be able to be fully comfortable in herself, but i don’t doubt that she is going to continue getting better throughout the rest of the series. Kaladin has to forgive himself for not being able to save everyone, though he’s been figuring that out since book one, so it wasn’t a big part of his story in oathbringer. Teft comes to a kind of reconciliation with himself and is able to let himself start moving forward.

overall, it’s a “forgive, but don’t forget” kind of thing. don’t deny the bad stuff you’ve done or that has been done to you, don’t blind yourself to the truth, and act accordingly, but also don’t let your past hold you back or decide that you aren’t worthy of becoming a better person. it’s some important stuff

smaller-stuff-wise, uhhhhhhhh

-the scene in hearthstone was adorable i love Kaladin’s family and Kaladin being happy and getting to see his baby brother it was such a sweet part of the book

-Dalinar and Navani had the most dramatic wedding imaginable. they’re Kholins

-Shallan and Adolin! i’m so happy with how sanderson handled their whole pseudo-love-triangle thing (although this book turned me into shameless shakadolin trash (everyone has a crush on kaladin stormblessed 2kOathbringer) so that’s a thing and also since Veil isn’t gone i don’t think Shallan’s whole ‘wow Kaladin’s hot’ thing is gonna be totally gone) and their wedding was sweet

-Elhokar. wow. i didn’t see that one coming AT ALL and it’s really sad! i’m glad Gavinor’s okay though. a+++++ job to Skar and Drehy and Shallan’s guardsmen for remembering to keep him safe

-i love Wit. he’s fantastic. he’s obviously kind of an asshole but some of his scenes (the ones with Shallan and the epilogue) show that he can be very kind “Sadeas counts twice” yep pretty much. also we got two new names for him? and he bonded a Cryptic. this man

-Lopen flipping the Stormfather off... perfect

-Shallan recreating an entire play that she saw as a child... and doing it again later... i could imagine it so vividly and it was beautiful

-Kaladin’s suffering is just... never going to end. branderson just enjoys making him sad all the time and i resent that because he’s my favorite character in SA

-Venli is going to save the listeners and i’m so ready for it. it’s going to be a long, tough journey but i believe in her she’s so strong

-hmmmmmm interesting that branderson was like “HERE’S A GAY CHARACTER AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH” when a bunch of his characters are written (even if it’s an accident) to be Bisexual(tm)/Polysexual(tm)

-Lift and Szeth are a good team. i’m gonna draw him ice-skating at some point

-Adolin, Kaladin, AND Jasnah insulting Amaram... good... also Jasnah marrying Amaram is a terrible thought. both of them would be miserable even if Amaram wasn’t openly working for Odium. also is Jasnah supposed to be under the ace/aro umbrella or is she allo but not interested?

-people have been calling Jasnah a queen for ages and now look at what happened! long live queen Jasnah she is one of the most qualified leaders alethkar has ever had or will ever have

-i like Nightblood a lot. wanna destroy some evil today?

-Kaladin picking up a rock at the end of the battle :’)

-Rock firing a shardbow was surprising. i found the parts he narrated interesting because he knows a lot more than he lets on. i’m excited to see more from him in SA 4

-some of the heralds still think ishar is sane but he is NOT

-Moash straight-up stabbed a Herald! he takes the cake from Kelsier. punching gods is no longer enough

-sanderson is making Kaladin’s depression more explicit and i think he’s doing a good job. knowing that his parents are alive and safe helps, and being around people he loves helps, and having a purpose and path in life is really important for him, but his depression is still there, just like Teft’s addiction is still there, and Dalinar’s tendency towards alcoholism is still there, and Shallan’s tendency to repress trauma is still there. he still gets depressed during the Weepings and when he is forced to question the ideals that he has chosen to follow, and that’s very realistic, which is good

-DALINAR IS LEARNING TO READ! FINALLY

-and generally gender roles getting smashed is good. Lyn and Malata and Shallan and Jasnah and the other female Windrunner scouts all fighting and Dalinar learning to read and even little things like sanderson letting Kaladin cry over his baby brother were wonderful to read

-also everyone’s gotta stop making fun of Renarin for being a scholar and start paying attention to stuff instead

-Evi. Evi. Evi.

-Adolin and Shallan being the PDA couple of this series and disturbing the Good Alethis around them

my main criticism of oathbringer overall is that it was really heavy compared to the rest of the stormlight archive. the battle scenes were REALLY LONG and full of lots of main characters getting stabbed, and the philosophical weight of the decisions they all have to make is just getting heavier and heavier. there are definitely funny moments, especially in bridge four sections and a lot of the character interactions in non-conflict scenes. and every bird being a chicken. and the boots thing. how many pairs has kaladin lost now? anyways, almost every scene felt like it existed to serve a specific purpose and move the plot along, which is part of why i got book fatigue. there weren’t enough breathers, which usually isn’t an issue in sanderson’s pacing, so i’d assume that it won’t be a big issue going forwards? maybe it’s just me trying to leach as much meaning from every sentence as i can and if i just relaxed and enjoyed the book then it wouldn’t be so exhausting

also, this post (btw thanks op that’s a great summary) says that the stormlight archive (and i think by extension the cosmere as a whole) is anti-grimdark. while i mostly agree, i think some of the moral relativism and “you’ve been accidentally evil the entire time!”s in oathbringer have leaned it a little more towards (sometimes gratuitous (looking at u, mr. stormblessed, u, ms. lightweaver, and in this book, especially u, mr. dad kholin)) angst, which is another reason for the book fatigue. it’s not unnecessary, and it leads to character and plot development, but it got to be too much for me sometimes. then again, i’m a teenager and these books are written for adults, so maybe that’s a factor- moral relativism might be hitting a bit too close to home for me

ANYWAYS! i’ll probably write some more, smaller posts about OB but this is what i have for now! cfsbf, y’all

[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

[hoidthevoid]

part one, chapters 1-9

ha how cool is it that the semi-sacred number (10) is how many major servants that Odium  has (the nine Unmade & his Champion in black Shardplate that Dalinar sees)

also how FRICKIN COOL is it that GOLD is the main color of the enemy?? like, finally, it’s not just black. Odium has a pretty neat color scheme, tbh--gold and really dark purple and red? sweeeet.

i like how every time Dalinar sees Navani for the first time in a chapter he goes on this mini-rant for about a paragraph about how beautiful she is

haha i remember the first time i was reading the part about the Oathgate mechanisms & how they have to be unlocked from both sides--a Radiant has to go to the Oathgate before they can use it--and thinking ‘wow that sounds a lot like the lego video games’

actually that’d be really cool. frick now i want a lego stormlight archive video game

"somehow we’ll make them listen, even if they’ve got their fingers planted firmly in their ears. makes one wonder how they manage it, with their heads rammed up their own backsides” wow, Navani.... it’s a real mystery where Jasnah got her quick, sharp tongue from

there Dalinar goes on another rant about how much he loves Navani. what a sweetheart

man all that buildup throughout with everybody looking for Sadeas’s murderer and then Adolin just goes ‘hey dad i killed him’ at the end like it’s nbd

also i love that juxtaposition between chapters. ‘sadeas has been murdered!’/immediate cut to Adolin’s viewpoint

detective dalinar, on the case

daily reminder that i love Palona

wow humankind really is a disease on Roshar.... the Desolations come and try to wipe them out but they just keep coming back. i guess that’s also true of an immune system, too, though. i know very little about medicine

highprince “i’m not like those other highprinces anymore” aladar

thank u for gasping dramatically, Kalami, you really contributed to the feeling of the moment in a way nobody else was brave enough to

all riiiight flashback chapter! 

wow young Dalinar was a pretentious little prick wasn’t he

albeit a pretentious deadly little prick, covered in blood. all the same

“spare the life of my brightlord, the heir” “uhhh.......... whoops”

this is gonna sound... really bad.... but honestly? Blackthorn Dalinar is.... i like him. he makes bad decisions and has little to no self control whatsoever and all that but he’s got a very likable personality as long as he stays in the book & away from me

on the other hand, Sadeas has always been a dick and i hate him

shotgun wedding, whoohoo!

it’s kind of odd to me that Shallan hasn’t spoken at all in the scenes she’s been in for so long, but i guess that’s just bc of the circumstances & the company

tbh Elhokar’s survived so many assassination attempts that it was an actual shock when That Thing happens later. that was bad. but we’re at a wedding now& he’s still alive so i’m not gonna think about that

“i’m sorry, son” “i know, uncle” yeesh

i’m still having difficulty picturing a face stretching to both horizons. it’s not working for me

oh yeah y’all should probably get used to reading the words “i love Adolin Kholin” bc.... i really do. i love him so much

“i can point to the moment when i decided for certain this record had to be written. i hung between realms, seeing into Shadesmar--the realm of the spren--and beyond.” 

dalinar, creating Honor’s Perpendicularity: wow storms i gotta write this down

kaladin that’s a weirdexpletive similie. ‘a baby with no face’ is the first thing you think of that’s unnatural?

aw i love Syl’s little umbrella. it’s completely pointless but it’s so cute

he’s so tall, and handsome as heck/he’s back home and let’s be real he is a wreck

no seriously Kaladin is So Tall. and so judgmental rn my goodness. ‘that cap is a diSGRACE’

THERE IT IS... LIRIN RECOGNIZED HIM...... kaladin casually shoves this guy charging at him out of the way i lvoe that... REUNION!! M Y  LITTLE BOY

excuse me syl what’s this voice singing to you

“what’d you do? hit a lighteyes?” “yep” BAM

i live for accurate descriptions of good punches. he’s so satisfied w himself too. such a perfect punch

i’m very proud of u kaladin that was very mature of you to realize that ur better than that. all the same i’m also very glad you punched him

it’s interesting that Kaladin can feel his eyes change color. wonder what that feels like

casually namedrops the king w/o a title. iconic

“i am an elegant and graceful weapon, stupid.”

mmmmm i’m having a little bit of a hard time buying Laral’s development but ok i guess

he calls Urithiru home more readily than he calls Hearthstone home and that makes me all kinds of emotional

ORODEEEENNNNN

“it made my eyes make my brain think it forgot to wake up” is an excellent description of surrealism good job brandon

shallan honey you’ve gotta realize that almost nobody sees things exactly the way you do. ily but you can be pretentious and close-minded as frick 

Dalinar keeps using the word ‘bastion’ and it’s very distracting bc i keep thinking about the Overwatch post from a couple months ago. he’d probably be a reinhardt main tho (fighting/life is about momentum and crushing the enemy. and c’mon, the armor and the hammer?)

ha first time i read this (”brightlord, sir, there’s been another murder”) i metaphorically looked directly at adolin and said ‘what did you do’

[preservationandruin]

Oathbringer Spoilers, Part Five: Chapters 121-End

Alright, one last push to finishing the book! 

Moash is given a few tasks. Dalinar asks Navani to teach him something. Adolin has doubts for a moment and then gets lectured out of them by Shallan, and also he tells his dad something important. Kaladin runs into some old friends. Taravangian makes a bad deal. Always trust Adolin’s gut instincts about people. Alethkar gets a new monarch. And Wit makes a friend. 

For some godforsaken reason, we’ve switched to MOASH. He’s not feeling particularly great about killing Elhokar--gee, wonder why--and we get that there are only nine, not ten, orders of Fused. 

Practically speaking, I doubt they can accurately emulate the Bondsmiths. Thematically speaking, there’s that number again. 

Lady Leshwi keeps visiting Moash. She says that he has taken Moash’s pain, and will return it when he needs it. Moash just wants to forget the look of betrayal in Kaladin’s eyes. 

Good luck with that. It’s like Kaladin told Amaram. You join Odium looking for peace, but you never find it there. 

Odium has a command for him. Fuck. Hnanan--one of the higher-ups--pulls out a strange knife--bright gold metal, a sapphire in the sheath. And asks him to kill a god. 

With that ominous note, we switch to Navani. She runs out to Dalinar, basically tackling him into a hug. She sends Lopen and Kaladin off. Dalinar says he thinks he knows why the memories came back--Odium would have made him remember one way or another, but this let him prepare. He asks her to study the King’s Drop. And then he asks her something else. 

Dalinar met her eyes. “I want you to teach me how to read.” 

THIS LINE. I GOT THROUGH ALL THE REST. BUT THIS LINE MADE ME CRY. 

Shallan/Radiant/Veil is resting, or trying to. She keeps slipping between Radiant and Veil, which must make her very strange to interact with for everyone else. Jasnah and Navani both don’t make a huge difference to her state. 

Someone get Adolin, he’s good at dealing with this. Oh, good, he came. 

Adolin is the one who can tell when it’s the real one. He’s the only one who manages to pick it out. 

Adolin points out that he could carry her, but then, she’s a Radiant, and he’s tired, so maybe she could carry him. Meanwhile, Kaladin has shown up. 

Veil instantly takes over--and also, fucking hell, Kaladin has lost his boots again. 

Both Radiant and Veil like Kaladin. 

Shallan shoves both of them to the utter back of her mind, because Adolin knows her. 

Venli can now switch between old and new rhythms at will, and if she doesn’t have Stormlight, she can make her eyes red. For the moment, then, she can hide her nature. 

A Parshendi Knight Radiant. Timbre bound her because so many of their number died, and she didn’t trust the humans. 

And she walks over to the singers, and starts telling them about the listeners. 

Nale notes that “only Ishar” escaped Braize with his mind intact--but clearly,  he didn’t. Szeth swears, and the highspren--which he still doesnt’ see often--approves. 

Shallan is looking for Adolin. She also notes that Kaladin has made a habit of just perching dramatically in high places. What a dweeb. 

I mean, if I could, I’d do that. 

Oh, god, Adolin has decided to “step back” in favor of Kaladin. He says that he’s going to “let [kaladin] have you” which...that phrasing is going to go great. Also, Adolin. Adolin. 

I think Shallan can make her own call, here. Adolin points out that Kaladin can fly. 

“Oh? And is that what women are supposed to seek in a mate? Is it in the Polite Lady’s Handbook to Courtship and Family? The Bekenah edition, maybe? ‘Ladies, you can’t possibly marry a man if he can’t fly.’ Never mind if the other option is as handsome as sin, kind to everyone he meets regardless of their station, passionate about his art, and genuinely humble in the weirdest, most confident way. Never mind if he actually seems to get you, and remarkably listens to your problems, encouraging you to be you--not to hide yourself away. Never mind if being near him makes you want to rip his shirt off and push him into the nearest alleyway, then kiss him until he can’t breathe anymore. If he can’t fly, then well, you just have to call it off!”  She paused for breath, gasping.  “And...” Adolin said. “That guy is...me?”  “You are such a fool,” She grabbed his ripped coat and pulled him into a kiss, passionspren crystallizing in the air around them. 

I LOVE ADOLIN AND SHALLAN

She also notes that she thinks she’s kept it to three personas--and while Shallan’s the hardest, she can probably keep it up with some help. Adolin grins, pointing out that she said she’d kiss him until he couldn’t breathe, but he’s not even winded. 

Adolin, I wouldn’t make that bet. She doesn’t have to breathe if she has Stormlight. 

Kaladin is also happy for them. He notes that he doesn’t think he’s in love with Shallan--but being around her did make him happy. She reminds him of Tien. He’s picked up a rock, like the kind that Tien always used to give him. 

OK, SIBLING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN KALADIN AND SHALLAN IS SO, SO GOOD. 

Rock is still recovering--he sees what he did, shooting Amaram, as a broken oath. 

Taravangian admits--he pushed Dalinar aside and wanted to seize control of the coalition. Dalinar realizes--Taravangian didn’t become king of Jah Keved by accident. And Taravangian...tells Dalinar what he’s doing. 

Moash is going down into the gardens in Khoilnar. His target is a madman, with an eye color nobody can see. 

Jezrien. The Herald Szeth saw in the first prologue. The one Dalinar got drunk with. Why does Odium want to kill a Herald? 

What is this death, Jezrien asks as he dies. The Fused didn’t want to murder him themselves. Why not? Why use Moash? 

SO UH THAT HAPPENED. MOASH FUCKING OFFED A HERALD. 

Anyway, Lopen has his spren! His name is Rua, and he looks like a little boy, but Lopen calls him Naco. LOPEN IS TEACHING RUA HOW TO FLIP PEOPLE OFF LOPEN IS THE WORST INFLUENCE ON SPREN AND I LOVE HIM

OH NO, DRU REALIZED THAT, SINCE KALADIN RETURNED ALONE...OH NO DREHY WAS ON THAT TRIP FUCK

BRANDON YOU BRING DREHY BACK THIS INSTANT AND STOP HIS BOYFRIEND FROM BEING SAD

Anyway, Lopen is managing to cheer up soldiers, mentioning that if one who has lost his arm needs some jokes, he has some. Rua keeps hiding from Lopen, so Lopen has to find him. 

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

I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

HE WAS SAVING IT FOR A DRAMATIC MOMENT AND THEN STORMFATHER ACCEPTED IT AND LOPEN FLIPPED HIM OFF TWICE. AND RUA DID IT WITH HIM. 

I LOVE BRIDGE FOUR SO MUCH. 

Kaladin immediately runs off, though, and Rua flips him off too. Lopen tells him not to wear it out. 

Ash is trying to take Taln to go see Ishar. And then she feels something rip inside her. Taln collapses. That’s...that’s Jezrien’s death, isn’t it. 

Oh, god, Jezrien is Ash’s father. She just felt her father die. 

She falls unconscious as the sensation stops, and I can’t blame her. 

Kaladin’s flying across the ocean, for some reason. And he finds a group of refugees from Kholinar. 

A group flying the bridge four flag. 

DREHY AND SKAR! They’re okay!!! They’re alive!!

AND THEY SMUGGLED OUT GAVINOR THEY PROTECT THOSE WHO CANNOT PROTECT THEMSELVES

Okay we don’t get that scene but DREHY BETTER HAVE HAD A GREAT REUNION WITH DRU OKAY DREHY WAS GONE FOR  A MONTH WITH NO NOTICE AND DRU THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD

Taravangian is stupid today. He reads letters from his grandchildren. He’s crying. None of his granddaughters know anything of the Diagram, and he’s determined that it will stay that way. 

He opens the window during the everstorm, and Odium speaks to him. He says he chose this time on purpose--because he doesn’t want Taravangian to ever, ever think he has power. 

Odium says that, if Taravangian serves him--he’ll spare Kharbranth, and anyone born in it, and their spouses. And he’ll be a spy, for Odium. Fuck. 

Adolin and Shallan are being adorable always. Have I mentioned how much I like the fact that Adolin loves hugs? I love it. Anyway, some of the older people are rolling their eyes at Adolin and Shallan for being stupidly sappy, which is hilarious. 

Awwwh, they’ve set the wedding date! For a week from then--they’re going fast, but hey. They road tripped shadesmar and faced down multiple unmade. She’s realizing, though, that she needs to explain some things--in particular,  the Ghostbloods thing--to Adolin. 

Apparently Veil and Adolin are, now drinking buddies. I love this so much. Watch out, Adolin, she can absolutely out-drink you. Anyway, Shallan has trouble actually paying attention to the meetings because Adolin. I love how, no matter how cutesy they’re being, nobody can really tell them to stop because one of them is a Radiant and the other is Adolin Kholin. 

“You think,” Adolin said. “Taravangian might have done it?”  “No,” Dalinar said.

I AM GETTING DECIDED FLASHBACKS TO BOOK ONE WHERE ADOLIN WAS LIKE “HEY WAS IT SADEAS” AND DALINAR WAS LIKE “NO OF COURSE NOT” 

ALWAYS. LISTEN. TO. ADOLIN’S. IMPRESSIONS. OF. PEOPLE. 

At least he notes that he doesn’t want to trust Taravangian very much. At least he’s learned a little. 

Dalinar says that Alethkar needs a king--and Adolin might be it. Adolin admits that he killed Sadeas. Adolin says he can’t be king of Alethkar. Dalinar points out that he can’t, either. 

...i think i see where this is going. 

Gavinor is too young. Adolin can’t. Renarin would be worse than Adolin. Dalinar can’t. 

Shallan blinks, thinking. They need someone diplomatic, but also not someone who can be walked over. 

It’s gonna be Jasnah, isn’t it. 

Palona is collecting gossip while Sebarial pretends to sleep. I still love them. 

OH MY GOD I WAS RIGHT: 

The doors to the room slammed open, the noise of it sending a shock through the room, complaints falling silent. Even Turi stood up to note Jasnah Kholin standing in the doorway.  She wore a small but unmistakeable crown on her head. The Kholin family, it seemed, had chosen their new monarch. 

Anyway, Moash is at work again, and I don’t give a shit about him anymore. Kill Jezrien and Elhokar? Yeah, I don’t give a shit about Moash. But Lady Leshwi offers him an honorblade, and a place with them. Not as Moash, as someone else. 

Moash takes the Honorblade, and is given a new name. Vyre. 

He Who Quiets. 

Fuck. 

And then, because this loves jerking us back and forward, we cut to Shallan’s wedding day. BRIDGE FOUR GAVE HER BOOTS AS A WEDDING GIFT. Shallan notes that Adolin is probably just getting....lots of swords. None of which will be as good as Maya. 

She pulls up Radiant and Veil to give their opinions--Radiant says it’s worthy, Veil says at least he has good taste in wine. 

She realizes--it’s alright to enjoy this. It’s alright to be happy. 

And then her door opens--and there are three young men. Balat. Wikim. Jushu. 

Her brothers. 

Mraize sent a note. He’s asking her to capture Sja-anat, or convince her to work with the Ghostbloods. Shallan notes that it is one of Sja-anat’s spren that Renarin bonded. 

We don’t get the wedding itself, but we do get Dalinar heading back happy and full from the feast. Szeth just kinda...chills outside the door. And Dalinar starts writing, carefully. When Navani comes back, he offers it to her to read, as nervous as though it were his first day with the swordmasters. 

“You said pronouns have a gender in the women’s formal script, and I realized that the one you taught me says ‘I, being female.’”  Navani hesitated, pen in her fingers. “Oh. Right. I guess...I mean...huh. I don’t think there is a masculine ‘I.’ You can use the neuter, like an ardent. Or...no, here. I’m an idiot.” she wrote a few letters. “This is what you use when writing a quote by a man in the first person.” 

I’m just pulling this out because, as a nonbinary person dealing with a language that isn’t really designed to accomodate that, i appreciate that Brandon realized this would be a problem. And English isn’t even as bad as Italian. I don’t even know how to refer to myself with some of the past-tense verbs, there. 

And we get that Oathbringer, the book, was written by Dalinar. And he’s so happy, so proud of being able to read. He can read the Way of Kings, himself. He can read Jasnah’s biography of Gavilar. He can write notes, and he can write his own life. 

Oathbringer, My Glory and My Shame

written by Dalinar Kholin. 

I like it. A good title. 

Wit is, as he tends to be, talking to himself, in a line of shuffling people. All great art, he says, is hated. He’s in the group of people being shuffled out of Kholinar, to work the farms. 

WIT STARTS DUSTING OFF HIS CLOTHING AND STOPS BECAUSE “HE’D WORKED HARD TO PLACE THAT DUST” 

I love him. He notes that if Rayse figures out he’s here, the entire city will be levelled, so he’s got to move it. He makes a small doll for a girl, and he...oh, he Breathes into the doll, giving it to the girl to protect her. He gives the girl the doll, and then gets a family whose child died to take care of her. 

Wit knows some of the old Parshmen. Vatwha is the current sentinel; they once danced together. He wonders if anyone wonders why the Fused are spending so much time clearing this section of the palace. He’s talking to the wall, as though it’s a person. 

He promises it truths. 

A small, scared Cryptic. 

Wit starts saying the First Ideal. 

Oh, no, I know where it came from. That was the section Moash was clearing--the section near where Elhokar died. That Cryptic...it wanted to bond Elhokar. But Elhokar died, in the middle of saying the Ideal, so...Wit had to be there for it. 

And with that, we end. 

[preservationandruin]

Words of Radiance Part Four Part Two

Alright, let’s keep this moving!

Kaladin Is Still In Prison, Adolin Was Also In Prison, Kaladin gets out of prison and makes a bad decision, I yell at Amaram a lot, Wit also yells at Amaram, Dalinar’s visions are leaked to the public, Shallan and Kaladin go on a Chasms Road Trip, Shallan remembers a fateful day, I yell at Amaram more, and Dalinar is ready for his big trip. 

WARNING: Shallan’s flashback includes physical and emotional abuse, as well as attempted and successful murder. 

Kaladin is still in prison. He’s noting that his thoughts are starting to distort the truth--again, That Mentally Ill Feel. He knows Dalinar will get him out, he believes Dalinar will get him out--but his mind twists it until he starts thinking Dalinar might have lied. He also starts beating himself up for being a bad guard, despite having gone toe-to-toe with the Assassin in White and lived, driving him off. 

He thinks bridge four is happy to be rid of him oh my god that is the most painful sentence I have ever read. 

Fortunately, he’s being let out. He promises that nobody will ever do this to him again, regardless of station. Aaaaaaand he runs into Adolin. Who is also in a cell. Because of course. And not only did Adolin lock himself up, he ordered that Bridge Four be there when Kaladin was released. 

Adolin Kholin is a good man. 

“Didn’t seem right, you in here,” Adolin said, eyes forward.  “I ruined your chance to duel Sadeas.”  “I’d be crippled or dead without you,” Adolin said. “So I wouldn’t have had the chance to fight Sadeas anyway.” The prince stopped in the hallway and looked at Kaladin. “Besides. You saved Renarin.”  “It’s my job,” Kaladin said. “Then we need to pay you more, bridgeboy. Because I don’t know if I’ve ever met another man who would jump, unarmored, into a fight among six Shardbearers.” 

And then they start bonding over Kaladin being incredulous about Adolin’s cologne and Adolin being mock-offended and even making fun of himself, and Adolin apologizing for ruining the plan, and Adolin pointing out that technically, Elhokar ruined it. 

Adolin also wholeheartedly believes Kaladin about Amaram--points out that you never hear about Amaram doing anything wrong, whereas even Dalinar--the best man Adolin knows--makes mistakes, loses his temper, and has a checkered history. Amaram doesn’t, which is pretty fucking suspicious. 

Yet again, Adolin’s intuition is scarily sharp. Right about Sadeas, right about Kaladin, right about Amaram. If he actually puts some more work into it, he could get really good at reading people. 

I love Adolin Kholin so much as a character like yeah, he can be a fuckup, but he is a genuinely good person. 

Also Bridge Four in unison salutes the moment that they see Kaladin and then just start cheering. Renarin is there in uniform, stimming but cheerfully talking with Adolin; Rock makes fun of Kaladin’s new beard. 

BRIDGE FOUR IS BACK TOGETHER. 

Also Adolin now apparently owns two shardblades and three sets of plate, the Kholin family owns a quarter of the Shards in all of Alethkar (actually more if Shallan marries into the family and I also know they’re not counting Jasnah, even though Ivory can become a Shardblade) and also Adolin is dueling champion now, as well he should be. 

And Adolin offers the plate to Kaladin...who gives them to Moash. Kaladin is purposely testing Adolin and actually flinches as Adolin grabs his shoulder--to ask if he’s sure. 

Because Adolin, unlike Amaram, is ACTUALLY A DECENT FUCKING HUMAN BEING. Kaladin also makes the cryptic comment that he’d be more useful against the Assassin in White without Shards. 

Moash’s new shard has a heliodor in the pommel, as a note. I wonder if that’s why his eyes go tan--is it just a lightening of the original color of the person’s eyes, or is it correspondant to the color of the stone powering the Blade? Kaladin’s eyes going blue near the end there imply it’s the power of the Blade making the eyes turn, so it probably corresponds to color? Although that doesn’t answer for why Lighteyes’ eyes don’t change. 

Rambling aside, Rock decides this shardplate shit is taking way too long and that they should be having a party. GREAT CAPTAIN KALADIN, STORMBLESSED AND DWELLER IN PRISONS, YOU WILL EAT MY STEW NOW. 

God I love Bridge Four. 

Also they were debating whether or not to break Kaladin out I fucking love them so much. my BOYS. Also they’re all willing to kick the shit out of Amaram. Same. Absolute Same. 

Aaaand Kaladin says that Moash’s friends are right about Elhokar. KAL NO. 

Over to Dalinar. Dalinar also basically says Kaladin reminds him of him when he was younger--although I have to note that Kaladin had a more level head. Also Navani is being an Engineer and Dalinar is trying to follow along. Mixed success. Also, Navani has figured out that the gemstones in Shards are not what originally powered them. 

Navani is still mourning Jasnah. “What happened to my little girl, so full of questions?” Ouch. 

Navani Deserves Better. 

Also we get another implication that Navani didn’t really care for Gavilar. Something was up with their marriage. 

Anyway, Dalinar’s trying to convince people to join his attempt to do a massive attack against the Parshendi. He’s noted that the Parshendi have stopped trying to go after gemhearts--which would be because their tactics have drastically shifted in a way that the Alethi cannot possibly be prepared for.

Also, Wit’s back. And Sadeas is purposely undermining Dalinar because he’s a shithead. I fucking hate Sadeas. 

“You always assume it’s me,” Sadeas said.  “That’s because any time I think it isn’t you, I’m wrong.” 

Yeah, Sadeas, Dalinar isn’t going to be that easy to fool this time. Easy to stymie, though, because for all Dalinar’s skills he is shit at political intrigue.

AND SPEAKING OF PEOPLE I FUCKING HATE, AMARAM IS HERE!

“Why, Brightlord Amaram!” Wit cried. “I was hoping I’d be able to see you tonight. I’ve spent my life learning to make others feel miserable, and so it’s a true joy to meet someone so innately talented in that very skill as you are.”  [...] “Do I know you?” Amaram asked.  “No,” Wit said lightly, “but fortunately, you can add it to the list of many, many things of which you are ignorant.”  “But now I’ve met you,” Amaram said, holding out a hand. “So the list is one smaller.”  “Please,” Wit said, refusing the hand. “I wouldn’t want it to rub off on me.”  “It?”  “Whatever you’ve been using to make your hands look clean, Brightlord Amaram. It must be powerful stuff indeed.”  Dalinar hurried over.

THIS EXCHANGE ADDS FIVE YEARS TO MY LIFESPAN, CLEARS MY SKIN, CURES MY ANXIETY, AND REPLENISHES MY BANK ACCOUNT WIT DRAGGING AMARAM IS EVERYTHING I LOVE IN THIS WORLD.

Also how he fucking precision-hits things that Amaram would be insecure about--his knowledge, where we know he thinks he knows fucking everything and has an inflated sense of his own importance, and his image, where Wit is basically like bitch I see you and I know you’re fake as hell. 

And then Dalinar runs over to do damage control because he can’t have Amaram getting too suspicious yet, I imagine. Throughout the whole conversation, Wit keeps dissing Amaram and I remain the most alive I have been in months. 

“I mean, I wouldn’t want to call Amaram an imbecile...because then I’d have to explain to him what the word means, and I’m not certain any of us have the requisite time.��� 

I know it’s petty but I’m petty and thus I take great joy in all of this. 

“Lord Amaram,” Wit called, standing to bow, his voice growing solemn. “I salute you. You are what lesser cretins like Sadeas can only aspire to be.” 

That one still gets me because it’s not even a jibe or a joke. It’s just a statement of fact and you can tell that Wit is dead-serious with that. Amaram also is like “lmao Dalinar I understand your visions better than you! The Almighty isn’t actually dead!!111!! he’s talking in metaphors u dingus!!11!!!!!!” 

Shut the fuck up Amaram, you know jack shit about Honor, don’t talk like you know Honor better than Dalinar. That’s just fucking laughable. 

He also refers to Kaladin only as “the slave.” And says he’d like to hear an apology from Kaladin. “Not for my own ego” Bull. Shit. 

Fucking asshole. 

Also Navani bitchslaps Wit with a handful of papers, and is furious that they edited the papers to make it seem like Navani is ridiculing Dalinar. She’s also ready to eviscerate whoever did this. RIP whoever the fuck leaked this. 

“As I fear not a child with a weapon he cannot lift, I will never fear the mind of a man who does not think.” 

Yeah it’s from the Way of Kings but in context it’s a sick-ass burn. 

So Dalinar just stands on a fucking table and is like “yeah these are the visions I’ve been having, come at me, you already made me a spectacle so honestly fuck you guys for thinking i’d actually be upset by this bullshit.” 

“If you must laugh, do it while looking me in the eyes.” 

Fuck yeah you tell ‘em dad. 

Also, Dalinar notes that Adolin seems very fond of Shallan, and Dalinar wants to encourage that--as long as he can get actual answers out of Jah Keved about her family. Which he won’t be able to because Jah Keved is a fucking mess. 

Dalinar asks if Wit is a Herald--he’s amused, but says no, and also denies being a Radiant. And we get Wit’s chilling line-- “If I have to watch this world crumble and burn to get what I need, I will do so. With tears, yes, but I would let it happen.” 

Also Wit basically says that he has to stop Odium from finding him in order to not die, basically. I still wonder about that WOB that says that Hoid and Rayse were once friends. That seems...quite interesting. 

Over to Kaladin. He’s still having problems inhaling Stormlight--he’s killing Syl, and with her the Nahel bond that gives him his powers. Kaladin you dingus. Syl is acting like a windspren again. 

“You want too much of me,” he snapped at her as he reached the other side of the chasm. “I’m not some glorious knight of ancient days. I’m a broken man. Do you hear me, Syl? I’m broken.”  She zipped up to him and whispered, “That’s what they all were, silly.” 

Bridge Four is still bringing their bridge on this scouting expedition, because Kaladin is a paranoid fuck (for good reason). Rock says that it’s gotten lighter because they defeated Sadeas. Nobody else understands him. 

Also, Renarin is starting to fit in with Bridge Four and joke around with them--and also that he hasn’t summoned his shardblade since the fight. 

For good reason, although neither Kaladin nor Dalinar knows that. Also, this: 

“Sir,” Kaladin said. “If I may say so, your son seems like kind of a misfit. Out of place. Awkward, alone.”  Dalinar nodded.  “Then, I can say with confidence that Bridge Four is probably the best place he could find himself.” 

I LOVE KALADIN’S RAGTAG BAND OF WEIRD MISFITS AND THAT THEY’RE ACCEPTING RENARIN AS ONE OF THEM. 

Also Adolin is now just occasionally making casual conversation with Kaladin. Kaladin also realizes that he’s made two conflicting oaths, and that’s why his powers are going away and Syl is losing sentience. She tells him to find the words, and soon. 

Shallan is geeking out over the bridge. Kaladin notices that he recognizes one of the carpenters, and is confused by it. Moash has stopped coming over for stew nights as often. 

Ouch. 

Kaladin points out that the plains are the worst place for Szeth to attack them, because they have three hundred archers with them and he just sorta. Flies. in the air. 

Adolin asks Kaladin for girl advice. Kaladin is like. my dude. you are asking the wrong person. Too busy trying not to die to date really. Kaladin is just like dude just tell her you really want this relationship to work also why the fuck are you asking me this. 

Also Adolin trying to be nonchalant about getting information about Kaladin. 

“You won’t have a Shardblade, but won’t need one, because of...you know.”  “I know?” Kaladin felt a spike of alarm.  “Yeah...you know.” Adolin glanced away and shrugged, as if trying to act nonchalant. “That thing.”  “What thing?”  “That thing...with the...um, stuff?” 

Kaladin actually manages to smile at how shitty Adolin is at this and just says “I don’t think you have any idea what you’re talking about” which is completely true. 

Also the conversation about how Adolin would pay to see Kaladin happy. That conversation is still lowkey gay and nobody can convince me otherwise. 

Neither of them get why Shallan is so excited about stuff like moss. And bugs. Adolin is trying to make jokes. Badly. 

“You’re good at military thinking, for a bridgeboy,” Adolin said. “Coincidentally,” Kaladin said, “you’re good at not being unobnoxious, for a prince.”  “Thanks,” Adolin said. “That was an insult, dear,” Shallan said. 

God I love all of these losers. 

Anyway, Shallan and Kaladin aren’t getting along well at all. High time for a bonding friendship trip into the caverns!!!! Kaladin notices, just at the right moment, that the man he recognized with the carpenters was one of Sadeas’ lumbermen. Of course, everything happens at once, and the bridge collapses--and down go Kaladin and Shallan. 

And Syl uses the last of their bond to save Kaladin. And the Stormfather fucking yells at him for killing Syl. Both Shallan and Kaladin assume they subconsciously saved the other. 

And so they try to survive. And also not kill each other. Kaladin points out that Shallan is complicit in the class inequality--which she really is, I mean, look at the boots scene--and Shallan responds with something like “oh wow big surprise people with power are abusive” which makes sense given her background but also is not the right response. 

He also does directly use the boots scene as proof she is complicit, which she admits. He also does say she’s better than most of the others. 

Aaaand then their shouting match attracts a chasmfiend and they have to bolt. BRILLIANT, GUYS. 

Also Kaladin notices that Shallan is incredibly unwinded from all this running--wow, I wonder if she’s infusing stormlight on instinct (the answer is yes). Shallan also uses her abilities to hide them and goes to try to see the chasmfiend. Kaladin notes that they look “wrong” and “almost intelligent;” Shallan notes that the spren that follow them also follow skyeels. 

I just had a bad thought. If Parshendi change when the everstorm comes, could the chasmfiends change too? If so, what the FUCK do they turn into? 

I hope I’m wrong. 

Shallan also calls Kaladin “Kaladin Longlegs.” Also she tries to throw some chull jerky at him when he’s not looking and he just catches it. 

Listen, when these two become friends, they will be the Best Sassfriends. 

And yeah, they have a sass contest, which actually amuses both of them. They’re good at it. 

God, I hope they end up as friends instead of part of some unholy twisted love triangle scenario. I fucking hate love triangles and i feel like it would only serve to drive everyone involved apart--which is awful, because I like having two male leads (Adolin and Kaladin) who actually get along half of the fucking time, and robbing me of that is just not fair, Brandon. 

Another powerfully sad moment of miscommunication: 

“All right,” Kaladin said. “Here it is. I can imagine how the world must appear to someone like you. Growing up pampered, with everything you want. To someone like you, life is wonderful and sunny and worth laughing over. That’s not your fault, and I shouldn’t blame you. You haven’t had to deal with pain or death like I have. Sorrow is not your companion.”  Silence. Shallan didn’t reply. How could she reply to that?  “What?” Kaladin finally asked.  “I’m trying to decide how to react,” Shallan said. “You see, you just said something very, very funny.”  “Then why aren’t you laughing?”  “Well, it isn’t that kind of funny.” 

They both understand so little about each other. They are seeing what they expect to see and not what’s underneath--which is two deeply broken people trying to move forward with their lives as best they can. 

Bridge Four is trying to figure out how Kaladin could have survived--Sigzil is grilling Teft about what he knows about the Radiants. Dalinar is trying to convince them not to keep watch for Kaladin, but good fucking luck with that. They’re Bridge Four. They know their captain. Dalinar is just like. You guys make sure you’re actually eating, right? 

He’s such a Dad. 

Anyway, Shallan is making a map, and Kaladin realizes how incredible her skill with drawing and memory is. Also, Shallan is talking to Pattern--and Kaladin realizes it’s like him talking to Syl. 

And Kaladin says that in a dream, he saw that the chasms were symmetrical--and Shallan realizes she can figure out where the parshendi are, and where the oathgate is. 

Shallan tries to point out that Kaladin can’t blame himself about everything. Kaladin immediately proves her wrong. And there’s another heartbreaking moment, this time of connection. 

“Oh, all people understand pain,” Kaladin said. “That’s not what I’m talking about. It’s...”  “The sorrow,” Shallan said softly, “of watching a life crumble? Of struggling to grab it and hold on, but feeling hope become stringy sinew and blood beneath your fingers as everything collapses?”  “Yes.”  “The sensation--it’s not sorrow, but something deeper--of being broken. Of being crushed so often, and so hatefully, that emotion becomes something you can only wish for. If only you could cry, because then you’d feel something. Instead, you feel nothing. Just...haze and smoke inside. Like you’re already dead.” He stopped in the chasm. She turned and looked to him. “The crushing guilt,” She said, “of being powerless. Of wishing they’d hurt you instead of those around you. Of screaming and scrambling and hating as those you love are ruined, popped like a boil. And you have to watch their joy seeping away while you can’t do anything. They break the ones you love, and not you. And you plead. Can’t you just beat me instead?”  “Yes, he whispered. Shallan nodded, holding his eyes. “Yes. It would be nice if nobody knew of those things, Kaladin Stormblessed. I agree. With everything I have.” 

God, that section rips my heart out. Shallan represses it, Kaladin has PTSD (well, they both probably do) and they both just wish they could have helped other people. 

These are good kids. 

And immediately they just start joking with each other. Aaand then the puns happen. And then a chasmfiend happens, and they get chased into a fissure. Kaladin wants to go chase it off so that they both can live, and Shallan panics at the thought of being left alone. And so she gives him her shardblade. 

Kaladin is like what the fuck. 

Also, the blade--which is Pattern--actually glows a garnet color. That’s because it’s alive. Also, it doesn’t scream--which Kaladin attributes to him having lost his bond with Syl, but that’s not right. And Kaladin also assumes two things in one sentence: 

“At least this told him one thing--Shallan wasn’t likely to be a Surgebinder. Otherwise, he suspected she’d hate this Blade as much as he did.” 

First, she is a Surgebinder.

Second, she does hate that Blade. 

Anyway, working together--with Pattern, Shallan’s illusions,and Kaladin’s fighting prowess--they kill a Chasmfiend. Also Kaladin’s leg gets Fucked Up. 

Kaladin ends up half in a chasmfiend’s mouth and the first thing he says is fucking ow. 

Anyway, they use the Blade to cut out a cubbyhole to weather the storm in. Shallan is having to train her mind not to blank at the mention or thought of the Shardblade--and she also can make it shrink. 

That’s not normal. 

Anyway, as Kaladin climbs into the cubbyhole and the stormwall hits, we get a Shallan flashback. She’s wearing her father’s necklace and a nice Vorin-style dress, and reporting that nobody has been able to find Helaran. 

For some reason, their father summoned Eylita to their house. This has got to be it--this is when Shallan kills her father to save Balat. Shallan finds Malise’s dead body--Father found out about the plan, sent for Eylita, and then murdered his own wife as a punishment. 

Shallan pours wine as her brother and father fight each other. This says a lot about how utterly Shallan had managed to subsume herself in other personas--she is outwardly calm even with this, with having seen a dead body of her own stepmother, with her brother and father trying to kill each other. 

And she pours wine and gives it to him. He drinks it, and then reaches for the poker--and severely injures Balat by slamming against his leg as Shalan screams. 

And as the rain pounds outside, her father starts to lose control of his fine motor skills. Shallan is cold--it’s her when she’s at rock-bottom. When she lost her mother, now, when she kills Tyn--when Shallan is at rock-bottom she is a stone-cold killer. 

Which is good, because it keeps her brothers and herself alive. 

But the poison only paralyzed him, and so--Shallan asks her brothers to finish the job, but none of them can. Jushu and Wikim back up. Balat isn’t conscious. So Shallan strangles him with the necklace he gave her, while singing the lullaby that he sung to her. 

Fuck, this scene is chilling and horrible. Shallan had to do it--her father would have murdered them all, one day, and probably only avoided her because he knew that she had a Shardblade and was scared--but god, that’s so brutal. 

Back to Kaladin. He gets in the cavern as Shallan uses her sphere to pull him up; they both see what looks like a screaming face in the storm. Kaladin sees something that looks like a giant, inhuman form glowing in the storm, completely alien, striding in it. 

Cool.

Anyway, Kaladin tells her his story--everything, including Amaram. Why not? They were about to die anyway. And she tells him that she killed her father, and about her own breaking; Kaladin realizes how lucky he was that his family loved him. 

Shallan was not that lucky. 

And Kaladin also realizes that he must have killed Helaran, which hurts. Anyway, Kaladin has a vision of the Stormfather in the storm and gets chewed the fuck out for killing Syl. 

Back to Dalinar. Amaram is trying to get him to make an agreement with Sadeas of some sort. Bull fucking shit. Shut the fuck up, Amaram. And then they get the message that Kaladin came out of the chasms. 

Dalinar runs the entire way there. 

He’s such a good dad. 

Aaaand he finds it hard to get through because so much of Bridge Four is already there. They know their Captain. And Kaladin fucking brought back the gemheart as well, of course. 

“Yeah, we took care of that for you, sir.” fuckin hell Kaladin. 

Shallan lies and says it was already dead, Kaladin agrees, Dalinar notes that Kaladin is a shit liar. 

And Navani has warmed up to Shallan enough to run over to her and mother hen her hardcore. I don’t think she wanted to lose another young scholar. 

Anyway, Dalinar asks if Kaladin was what he was looking for, and Kaladin denies it--he says he might have been, but not now. Dalinar also notes that Kaladin is a hero again. 

Also wow, looks like Amaram just vanished, what a surprise, looks like he can’t stand the sight of a certain slave being a hero, huge surprise there, i’m shocked

Also Pattern eavesdropped on Dalinar and Navani and offers to reproduce the sound of them kissing and Shallan is like. You know what. no. no thanks pattern. maybe not. 

Also Adolin shows up and just hugs Shallan a lot, and then she kisses him. Nice. He also said that he would protect her and not let anything bad happen to her--which causes her to freeze up. 

Last person who did that was her father. Don’t try to hide her away, Adolin, she murdered the last man who did that. 

And Shallan also convinces them not to take the parshment with them, which was A Good Call because the parshendi are calling down the everstorm and all those parshmen would go stormform. 

Aaaand that ends Part Four! 

[preservationandruin]

Words of Radiance Part Five Part One

We’re in the home stretch! Let’s do this thing!

Dalinar sets off on his expedition, Amaram gets FUCKING OWNED, I proceed to go off on a fucking rant because Amaram talked about honor one time too many, Shallan outs herself and Jasnah as Radiants, Rlain comes back, Elhokar’s Incompetence Rant pt.1, the Parshendi start singing a very ominous song, I’m gay for Radiants ,and Kaladin has a revelation. 

This part is titled Winds Alight and we have the points of view of basically everyone--Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Adolin, and Wit. Let’s get this show on the road, gang!

Our epigraphs here are from the Diagram, which is interesting.

Kaladin is beating himself up for killing Syl, which, good. He deserves that. He also is getting toward the Weeping, which is awful for him--it’s when his Seasonal Affective Disorder kicks in hardcore. He gets Lopen and they go to watch the army leave. Lopen suggests that to get Syl back he buy her something nice, which is just so...Lopen. I love him.

Kaladin also realizes Dalinar’s force is what he always dreamed of following into battle. It’s the army he fantasized about as a child. And Sebarial, of all people, has joined Dalinar into the fight.

Hell. Yes.

And ooooooh loooook, Amaram is coming in his fancy gold knight radiant cloak with his fancy shardblade and fancy armor and yes I am still and will always be bitter as fuck about Amaram in general. Amaram is like oooOOOOOOooooo we should SEND SEBARIAL AWAY he’s UNTRUSTWORTHY and wow pot, kettle, black??

And of course, Aladar comes too. Meanwhile, Ialai points out that she and Sadeas could have a coup. Sadeas literally would--he would kill Elhokar just for fucking power. He just doesn’t think he has to.

God, he’s a waste of investiture.

Also, Ialai is the one who had an assassin with the bridges--it’s her fault that Kaladin and Shallan pitched into the chasm. Which let Shallan figure out where the Oathgate was.

NICE GOING IALAI.

Anyway, Aladar was one of Sadeas’ biggest supporters. And he finally can’t convince himself to support Sadeas when Dalinar is out there doing the right thing. Aladar and Dalinar even have a moment where Aladar is like listen, you know I’m not some shining knight, I have blood on your hands, and Dalinar’s like, well, I’m not either, but we’re what we’ve got.

Amaram is like ooOOOOoooOOOO it would be SO COOL if we could WIN THIS ALL ON OUR OWN we shoudn’t WORK TOGETHER DAL and Dalinar’s like, that’s bullshit. And then he sees Kaladin and asks Amaram to come with him.

God, the first time I read this I was entirely made out of anxiety.

Anyway, Kaladin is seeing the men off, and they’re yelling at him for walking around on a badly injured leg.

“I thought,” Kaladin noted, “That I was your commander.” “Nah, can’t be,” Teft said, “because our commander would be smart enough to stay in bed.” “And eat much stew,” Rock said. “I left you stew to eat while I am gone.”

I LOVE BRIDGE FOUR

Also they see Dalinar coming and Rock is like wow now you’re definitely screwed. Also I would like to note that all of bridge four doesn’t trust Amaram.

Also, Moash was left to guard the King, and Kaladin nearly dies upon realizing that. And then we get the exchange that causes my soul to ascend from this mortal plain.

“Amaram,” Dalinar said, waving for the highlord to step up. “You told me that you’d never seen this man before arriving here on the Shattered Plains. Is that true?” Kaladin met the eyes of a murderer. “Yes,” Amaram said. “What of his claim that you took his Blade and Plate from him?” Dalinar asked. “Brightlord,” Amaram said, taking Dalinar by the arm, “[insert bullshit sanctimony that I don’t want to type out] But his allegations regarding me are obviously preposterous.” Dalinar nodded to himself, as if this were all expected. “I believe an apology is due.” Kaladin struggled to remain upright, his leg feeling weak. So this would be his final punishment. Apologizing to Amaram in public. A humiliation beyond all others. “I--” Kaladin began.” “Not you, son,” Dalinar said softly.

Not you, son. Not you, son. Not you, son.

Not you, son.

I shit you not, the first time I read that I yelled aloud in the middle of class. This is the single most evocative sentence in the book for me--and it’s three words. But it flips your perception of what Dalinar’s been doing on it’s head, cuts through the building anxiety like a knife, and fuCKS UP AMARAM ROYALLY.

Dalinar had been laying an intricate trap for Amaram that required him to be a cheating, lying backstabbing son of a bitch--and Amaram, being a cheating lying backstabbing son of a bitch, fell for it completely. Dalinar is trusting.

That doesn’t mean he’s stupid.

“Sometimes good men must die so that greater goals must be accomplished.” THAT’S THE BULLSHIT THAT YOU ALL ARE PULLING, ISN’T IT, AMARAM. SONS OF HONOR MY FUCKING ASS. YOU DON’T KNOW HONOR FROM YOUR OWN SHIT. STOP SPITTING SANCTIMONY, YOU MURDERER. YOU DON’T EVEN FUCKING REGRET IT. YOU THINK YOU’RE THE SECOND COMING OF SOME FUCKING HERO WHEN YOU’RE JUST A CRAVEN, POWER-GRUBBING BASTARD WHO CAN’T POSSIBLY COMPREHEND THAT A SLAVE MIGHT BE MORE IMPORTANT IN THE SCHEME OF THINGS THAN YOU ARE. I WANT CULTIVATION TO LEARN THAT YOU’RE USING THE NAME OF HER DEAD PARTNER TO CONDONE CRAVEN, DISHONORABLE, CORRUPT BULLSHIT AND I WANT HER TO TEAR YOU APART. BETTER YET, I WANT YOU TO DIE KNOWING FOREVER THAT KALADIN IS MORE CRUCIAL TO THE SALVATION OF ROSHAR THAN YOU ARE, AND THAT THE HERALDS ABANDONED YOU. HONOR IS DEAD, AMARAM. HONOR IS DEAD AND YOU DO NOTHING.

SOMEONE WHO KNEW WHAT HONOR WAS WOULDN’T HAVE KILLED KALADIN’S MEN. SOMEONE WHO KNEW WHAT HONOR WAS WOULDN’T HAVE LIED. SOMEONE WHO KNEW WHAT HONOR WAS WOULDN’T HAVE WATCHED WHILE SADEAS TRIED TO CRIPPLE ADOLIN AND RENARIN. SOMEONE WHO KNEW WHAT HONOR WAS WOULDN’T STEAL AND KILL FOR HIS OWN PERSONAL POWER.

YOU CAN’T SAY SHIT ABOUT HONOR, MERIDAS AMARAM. YOU AREN’T WORTHY TO EVEN TALK ABOUT IT BECAUSE CLEARLY, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT MEANS.

um. anyway. the plot. that thing. I should probably get back to it.

“Thank you,” Kaladin said to Dalinar, “For believing me.” “I do listen sometimes, soldier,” Dalinar said. “Now go back to camp and get some rest.”

GOOD DAD, BEST DAD.

Also, Dalinar notes that holding a Shardblade feels wrong to him. Those Radiant Senses are tingling.

The Diagram notes that Szeth could possibly put extra strain on people who are exploring the Nahel bond, and lead to them becoming Radiants sooner. Which kind of happens, but not in the exact way they think--it’s keeping Kaladin away from Dalinar--and near Elhokar--that causes the problem.

Whoops.

Shallan and Adolin are flirting, by which I mean Adolin is teasing her for having a slow horse and she’s threatening to remove his toes.

There are further hints of a burgeoning love triangle that I am deliberately ignoring because I refuse to even think about that happening. No. Don’t you dare, Brandon. And Shallan finally actually gets a copy of Words of Radiance.

Also it mentions “women who could melt a stone with a touch” and a) DUSTBRINGERS PLEASE TELL ME MORE and b) I’m. gay.

Also Navani offers to help Shallan with her work, realizing that she should have offered much sooner. Also we get a wonderful line from Navani: “My little Jasnah, insufferable and wonderful.”

Shallan also tells Navani that Jasnah was a Surgebinder.

Kaladin is dealing with the Weeping. And Moash, in this chilling moment:

“Sometimes lives must be spent for the greater good,” Kaladin said. “Yes, exactly!” “That’s what Amaram said. In regards to my friends, whom he murdered to cover up his secrets.” “Well, that’s different, obviously. He’s a lighteyes.” Kaladin looked to Moash, whose eyes had turned as light a tan as those of any Brightlord. Same color as Amaram’s, actually. “So are you.”

Fuck, that’s a powerful Not So Different moment. Although Moash brushes it off and then leaves.

The diagram has an interesting fragment: “We must find one [honorblade] Can we make to use a truthless can we craft a weapon” So the diagram may have been behind Szeth being called Truthless. Yikes. He’s not going to like that.

Anyway, Shallan likes the Weeping, and is drawing Jasnah in one of her last moments--tired, terrified, in the cabin of the ship.

And Shallan tells Dalinar that she’s a radiant. By making a small image of Jasnah. This is just a deeply important moment. Dalinar then thinks to make Shallan lead them, and Shallan is like. hell no. nope. not me.

Dalinar just lead them yourself.

Dalinar stopped in place, and stared at her in surprise. Then he grunted, his face barely visible. “I see Jasnah in you.” Rarely had Shallan been given such a compliment.

And then they find a Parshendi body with red eyes. Yikes. And also, Rlain comes back! Well, Shen, but he’s Rlain, and he’s Bridge Four. Fuck yeah.

“Yes. [Eshonai] was my commander. But now...Sir, I have reason to believe that everyone I know...everyone I loved...has been destroyed, monsters left in their place. The listeners, the Parshendi, may be no more. I have nothing left...” “Yes you do,” Skar said from outside the ring of guards. “You’re Bridge Four.” Rlain looked at him. “I’m a traitor.” “Ha!” Rock said. “Is little problem. Can be fixed.”

I LOVE BRIDGE FOUR SO MUCH.

Also Shallan is doing scouting and apparently Dalinar was just like “Get Shallan to come back and if she doesn’t tell her that I’ll send Adolin to cart her back over his shoulder” and Shallan is like “nice sounds hot anyway, science”

Anyway, Shallan finding the Oathgate is the only real retreat plan that the army has, so like, no pressure.

Kaladin is dealing with the Weeping and his injury, and getting through the training ground while limping. Also, when he gets back, Elhokar is there, waiting for him--aaaaand Elhokar is drunk.

Wonderful. Also I love how every time they describe Elhokar they point out that he has a big nose.

So we get Elhokar Inadequacy Rant no.1. Elhokar is sharp--he notices that there is a pattern of heroism around Kaladin, and he also knows that he himself doesn’t have any success--he gives himself a brutal smackdown of his own flaws:

“When I try to be strong, I make a fool of myself. When I try to be merciful, people walk all over me. When I try to listen to counsel, it turns out I’ve picked the wrong men! When I try to do everything on my own, Dalinar has to take over lest I ruin the kingdom. How do people know what to do? Why don’t I know what to do? I was born to this office, given the throne by the Almighty himself! Why would he give me the title, but not the capacity?”

Like, he’s going about this wrong, but god, this shit is fucking relateable. Elhokar does not have the personality of a good leader. But he can’t exactly not lead, becuase the kingdom still holds to the divine right of kings. So he grasps at straws, too uncertain of himself to make a solid choice one way or the other, too proud to admit his mistakes, craving flattery because it reassures him he’s not useless but knowing at the same time in his heart that it’s all a fucking lie.

Anyway, Kaladin refuses to teach him, and says he’s a bad king. Elhokar did ask. Also, Elhokar notes that when Kaladin came, the “shadows”--what Elhokar saw in mirrors and the corners of his eyes--left. Interesting. Very interesting.

The Diagram here mentions the Unmade and the fact that some of them can probably think.

With Dalinar, they’re about to actually join in battle with the Parshendi. Aladar freaks out because holy shit, Voidbringers, and Dalinar basically gives him a “get ahold of yourself” speech to get him to actually lead.

Okay, here’s a main difference between Dalinar’s viewpoint and Amaram’s. Dalinar is willing to sacrifice his army to stop the voidbringers, true. But he is only doing that because he is taking the same risk. He will lead that army because he wouldn’t ask them to go if he wasn’t at the lead, taking the same risk.

I’m going out on a fucking limb and saying that Amaram isn’t willing to go through what he put Kaladin through. Or what he did to Kaladin’s men. He thinks he’s too important to risk himself, and that’s why he’s such a sanctimonious ass.

Also, Dalinar gives impassioned speeches to Roion and Aladar, and then Sebarial is like where’s mine and Dalinar’s like you...can just go into the command tent and Sebarial is like Nice.

Time for another Good Dalinar Battle Speech: Yes, those are Voidbringers. Yes, we’re going to fight them. I don’t know what they can do. I don’t know why they’ve returned. But we came here to stop them.

I know you’re scared, but you have heard of my visions in the highstorms. In the warcamps, the lighteyes mocked me and dismissed what I’d seen as delusions. Well out there, you see proof that my visions were true! Out there, you see what I have been told would come!

I have been sent by the Almighty himself to save this land from another Desolation. I have seen what those things can do; I have lived lives broken by the Voidbringers. I’ve seen kingdoms shattered, peoples ruined, technology forgotten. I’ve seen civilization itself brought to the trembling edge of collapse.

We will prevent this! Today you fight not for the weath of a lighteyes, or even for the honor of your king. Today, you fight for the good of all men. You will not fight alone! Trust in what I have seen, trust in my words. If those things have returned, then so must the forces that once defeated them. We will see miracles before this day is out, men! We merely have to be strong enough to deserve them.

And then the Parshendi start singing, and it’s a completely new song that is more frenetic, and Rlain is freaking the fuck out. He says that Dalinar has to stop the song at all costs.

Back over to Kaladin. He’s wading through the training ground, which is now a small lake. He goes to seek out Zahel, who has strung up a hammock on lightning rods because he fears neither god nor man. As well he should--I mean, it’s Vasher. 

His metaphors remain hilarious. 

“Excellent deduction. Like fresh blue paint on a wall.” 

Anyway, Zahel asks what Kaladin wants. 

“Have you ever had to choose between two equally distasteful choices?”  “Every day I choose to keep breathing.”  “I worry something awful is going to happen. I can prevent it, but the awful thing...it might be best for everyone if it does happen.”  “Huh.”  “No advice?”  “Choose the option that makes it easiest for you to sleep at night. That’s what I wish I’d done.” 

This turns out to be the exact advice Kaladin needs to hear, tbh. He grabs a spear and goes to try to practice. He also starts literally yelling at the storm. And he realizes the rationale he’s using--”It’s right to remove the wounded limb. This is what we have to do, to stay alive” is the rationale that was used to kill Tien. 

And Kaladin realizes that for Dalinar, Elhokar is Tien.