#autistic!Jasnah

[trishyeves]

Having Jasnah Kholin thoughts

Specifically, like, if the way Trish is reading the implications of her childhood "lunacy" is correct, that her family forcefully institutionalized her as a child, and what impact that had on her

She plays her cards so close to her chest, she doesn't trust easily, yet she loves fiercely

Based on her narration, her takeaway from the trauma (or, more likely, a takeaway from the trauma) was that the people she loved could still hurt her, even withour meaning it

How much of this was Gavilar, and how much was Navani? Did this have reverberations through the family to Renarin, the other neurospicy Kholin who likes to keep secrets?

Trish doesn't know, just... big feelings

[elend-venture]

autism just runs through the kholin family and renarin is the equivalent of a kid who knows theyre autistic pointing out their dads model train collection (jasnah is autistic also)

[kinsey3furry300]

There is a school of thought that says that C-PTSD does such a good job of re-wireing your brain that it should be thought off as an aquired Neurodivergancy.

So Therefore:

Kaladin: C-PTSD and Seasonal adjustment disorder. The saddest and wettest Neurodivergant on Roshar.

All the other Bridgemen:C-PTSD.

Dalinar: C-PTSD and amnesic for like half of the plot.

Navini and Jasnah: Super high functioning but definitely on the spectrum.

Renarin: a man so autistic he invents the stim toy and just assumed the screaming of dead gods he hears whenever he summoned a shard was just another sensory issue that everyone had so he didn't mention it.

Shallan: the human personification of ADHD, C-PTSD, and masking so hard she's fractured her psyche.

Andolin: somehow the only neurotypical in house Kholin and somehow the most constantly confused blorbo of a man. And that's assuming he's not dyslexic, I know Alethi men aren't supposed to read, but he never even mastered glyps and that's expected for an educated male. My beloved.

[mistywitcher]

So, I have just come home from Alton Towers (a theme park) and of course my autistic brain went a bit nuts in the queues so here is my take on what stormlight characters would do at a theme park lol:

Adolin: absolutely loves everything about the place, gets stupidly excited and practically runs from ride to ride, gets pissed off when the others don’t move fast enough and THERES ONLY A 15 MIN QUEUE SO COME ON LETS GO! he screams and whoops on rides and eats too many donuts and candy floss. yes he is sick at the end of it but so fuckin worth it.

Shallan: enjoys the vibes of the park, absolutely fascinated with how each area is themed and sketches in the queues. she’s more reserved on the rides than Adolin, but does laugh hysterically on them instead of screaming.

Navani: yes she enjoys the park, but is more interested how the rides work. Dalinar has to restrain her from asking a million questions to the ride staff. she goes on the odd ride but is usually quite quiet, focusing on the feeling of the mechanics. she has a secret love of shitty churros lol.

Renarin: fuck the theme park, only goes to please everyone else. it’s too loud, too many colours and there’s people everywhere. NO, ADOLIN, I WILL NOT GO ON THAT DEATH TRAP. he is the personal bag watcher while everyone else goes on. The only thing he does enjoy is the carnival games and is a weirdly good shot, so wins shit tons of stuffed toys.

Kaladin: tolerates the group holiday. went on one big ride, felt terrified and mildly sick and decided to only go on small ones after. weirdly loves water rides, gets fuckin so hyped on the river boat rapids. he wants to enjoy the day more, but can’t help worrying a bit every time the others are on a ride in case it goes wrong.

Jasnah: weirdly enjoys the park and actually lets loose a little. she appreciates the idea of creating false reality for entertainment, mixed with the cleverness and thrill of the rides. absolute control freak tho, and has a detailed map and schedule for the day.

Dalinar: activates full on Dad mode. has everyone drank enough? there’s a lot of walking, has everyone brought appropriate footwear? SHALLAN PUT SOME SUNCREAM ON OR SO HERALDS HELP ME. actually loves the rides tho, and follows all the rules of the park to the letter. sits next to Adolin on a ride once and ends up going nuts and screaming with him.

Hoid: disappears for periods of time and refinds the the group now and then. he hacks the arcade games and keeps coming back with more coins. no one questions it when one minute he’s sat on a ride next to them and the next he’s suddenly not there…

Thats all I’ve got, but please feel free to reblog/tag with more characters lol, or to add to this ahahahhaha!

[cosmerelists]

Why Every Stormlight Character Is Secretly A Cat

Or, you know, as many of them as I can fit into one reasonably sized list!

1. Kaladin: Likes to be high

Kaladin-Kitty: (purring happily on the very tallest cat tree ever)

Hapless Cat-Parent: Yup, he loves being tall!

Hapless Cat-Parent: Hardly ever touches the floor if he can help it!

2. Lift: Knows that YOUR food is simply better

Hapless Cat-Parent: S-Stop trying to steal my pancakes!

Hapless Cat-Parent: You HAVE food!

3. Lopen: Sometimes hurts people when he only meant to play around

Hapless Cat-Parent: Ow!! No biting!!!

Hapless Cat-Parent: I-It’s okay! You know I’ll protect you, even if you hurt me.

4. Lewshi: Likes to Play-Fight

Hapless Cat-Parent: Ha, ha yeah! Lewshi LOVES to wrestle with the other kitties.

Hapless Cat-Parent: Never with murderous intent, of course! She just loves a good play-fight!

5. Szeth: Can see ghosts

Szeth-Kitty: (staring unblinking at a spot across the room)

Hapless Cat-Parent: W-What do you see with your kitty eyes?!?

6. Syl: Sometimes gets the zoomies

Hapless Cat-Parent: Ha, yeah, she loves to race about like this!

Hapless Cat-Parent: Especially when it’s stormy out, for some reason.

7. Nale: Likes the hunt

Nale-Kitty: (laser-focused, butt wiggling)

Hapless Cat-Parent: That stuffed mouse will never escape you!

8. Renarin: Is autistic (since, you know, all cats are autistic)

Hapless Cat-Parent: I just don’t understand people who think cats are hard to read!

Hapless Cat-Parent: All we gotta do is pay attention to your body language, huh, bud?

9. Rock: Knows the importance of cooking

Hapless Cat-Parent: Making biscuits again, huh?

10. Shallan: SUCH a little faker sometimes

Shallan: (the most mournful of kitty cries)

Hapless Cat-Parent: Y-You can’t trick me! I KNOW I already fed you!!

11. Tien: Brings you presents when you’re sad

Hapless Cat-Parent: B-brought me another rock, huh?

Hapless Cat-Parent: Thanks, buddy. I love it.

12. Stormfather: Knocks things over and pretends it wasn’t his fault

Hapless Cat-Parent: H-Hey! Did you knock EVERYTHING off my shelf?!

Stormfather-Kitty: (innocently cleaning his tail)

Hapless Cat-Parent: Uh-HUH.

13. Pattern: Will cockblock you at any opportunity

Romantic Partner: Uh, your cat’s creepy, unblinking gaze is kinda killing the mood here.

Hapless Cat-Parent: Yeah...he does that.

14. Sebarial: Knows the importance of conserving your energy

Hapless Cat-Parent: Napping in the sunshine, huh?

Hapless Cat-Parent: You sure live the good life.

15. Rlain: Changes forms when he needs to

Hapless Cat-Parent: Wow! You’re all poofed up!

Hapless Cat-Parent: You look so big and scary! That dog outside is definitely intimidated. 

16. Rysn: Is not afraid to jump from very high places

Hapless Cat-Parent: Ha ha! Thank goodness cats always land on their feet!

(I’m sorry)

17. Moash: Does NOT accept that humans should be in charge

Hapless Cat-Parent: Oh sweet Moash-kitty, sometimes you stare at me like you’re plotting my demise.

Hapless Cat-Parent: ...Sometimes I think I’m lucky you don’t have thumbs.

18. Cord: “Father, I crave violence.”

19. Navani: A very curious kitty

Hapless Cat-Parent: Yes, yes, I know you must sniff every one of these groceries.

Hapless Cat-Parent: Such an investigative little kitty!

20. Jasnah: Respect must be earned

Human Amaram: I am COVERED in SCRATCHES

Hapless Cat-Parent: You can’t force a cat to like you, you know.

21. Venli: Can’t decide what she wants

Venli-kitty: (mournful meows)

Hapless Cat-Parent: Oh? You want the door open?

Venli-kitty: (mournful meows)

Hapless Cat-Parent: O-Oh? You want it closed now?

Venli-kitty: (ever more mournful meows)

Hapless Cat-Parent: Make up your mind, already!

22. Eshonai: Adapts to communicate with humans

Hapless Cat-Parent: Huh! It says here that adult cats only meow to communicate with humans!

Hapless Cat-Parent: ...Is that your excuse for singing the song of your people every morning at 3:00am, then?

23. Elhokar: Pretends it was all on purpose

Hapless Cat-Parent: Hanging upside down from a claw snag again, huh?

Hapless Cat-Parent: Yes, yes, I’m sure you meant to do that.

24. Dalinar: HATES closed doors

Dalinar-Kitty: (vigorous scratching)

Hapless Cat-Parent: Yes, yes, I’d hate to interrupt your journey to the bathroom.

25. Teft: Shows affection by staying at your side

Hapless Cat-Parent: You’re so sweet, Teft-kitty.

Hapless Cat-Parent: You may be grumpy, but you’re always sitting next to me when I’m sad.

26. Thaidakar: Best not to let him get out

Hapless Cat-Parent: Ha, ha, of COURSE I don’t let my cat outside!

Hapless Cat-Parent: Thaida-kat would destroy the whole ecosystem if he got out.

27. Adolin: Looks great in his little outfits

Adolin-kitty: (purring contentedly)

Hapless Cat-Parent: Yeah, and ever since I put him in that little sweater, he won’t let me take it off!

Hapless Cat-Parent: Such a fashion icon.

[sniffanimal]

not only does the stormlight archive have two canonically autistic* characters, they're both very different in presentation from each other. what a breath of fresh fucking air tbh

very mild spoilers below, since I think the tension of one of their reveals is interesting

*autistic as in "developmentally disabled in a way that is verbally expressed in canon", for the diagnosis of 'autism' doesn't exist in this fantasy world

Renarin? Presented as what I would consider the most common way an autistic character is portrayed in media (not a bad thing, just a common thing). Speaking, quiet, over-analyzes things, fidgets with stuff, forms bonds with others in a kind of hard to describe autistic way. Pretty classic level 1/2 autism. I feel like most stories that feature autistic characters have 1 of This Guy type autists and nothing else

But the stormlight archive? We also get Dabbid. Dabbid is originally known just as a quiet guy who then gets PTSD ("battle shock" in the text) and becomes fully nonverbal for most of his time onscreen until the end of RoW. In that book, we learn he's actually been able to speak for a while now, as his battle shock healed, but he didn't because he was afraid of being judged for how he talks. We are shown that he was born with the umbilical cord around his neck and that he didn't learn how to talk until he was 6. He frets about how he can't do math in his head and that he doesn't think as fast as other people. He specifically mentions struggling with doing all the steps for a task. This all reads as a level 2/3 autistic guy! In fact, it doesn't have to read, since it's all there in the actual text, no coding or implications.

I could have much bigger thoughts and discussions about the morality of the portrayals, and how neither is a squeaky-clean perfect paragon of representation, but I find those kinds of discussions to be so bad faith.

I'm just happy to see 2 autistic characters in one story that aren't just 2 Sheldon Coopers. Not to mention they interact in canon and while they don't so much as talk, they do activities together that don't have to do with Being Autistic, like some sort of neurodivergent bechdel test.

and seeing a higher-supports-needs autistic character!!!! that isn't the focus of the story!! (i.e. not like the stormlight archive is actually 5000 pages about how miserable Dabbid a family is taking care of him).

and then there's also all the characters who aren't CoNfIrMeD autistic/Developmentally Disabled, but definitely read as such. I think Jasnah is autistic, as well as Raboniel's daughter. The latter of those two is written as "insane" due to the nature of her being a Fused, but her mannerisms seem far closer to someone with a developmental disability, or neurological one like dementia, than sheer CPTSD etc.

I keep thinking about a scene I remember, that I haven't gotten to yet in my reread, about Raboniel's daughter. I'm so nervous about getting to it soon. I feel the ache creeping in

[earlyspringtranscendence]

Sometimes I'm normal but usually I run around screaming about such things as Wit + Jasnah or Renarin or Shallan like

Wit and Jasnah are canon now which like I'm crazy about that OBVIOUSLY but I didn't even mean that I meant it more in thr sense of just general... Idk. Insanity. Like in the way that Jasnah Shallan and Renarin resemble each other, namely how their unique traits alienate them (I'm talking about autism, asexuality and whatever nebulous quality combines them both) but specifically in a way that other king's wits would (presumably) exploit but THIS Wit doesn't (BC. You know. He is himself in many ways far more alien than any of them will ever be and that + his age puts him above even the nebulous quality of autismic asexuality (I'm not making sense here but what I mean is that when you are an ancient creature who it could be argued stands above or at least Without gods because of what he knows, why would you care about such things as social rules or social dynamics) (=I don't think wit is necessarily autistic or ace at all but that he no longer cares enough to play the game) which for the record is also why being a wit is the best role he's played in this whole thing so far because that's exactly what position a wit takes on within the Alethi society)

Basically I'm re reading way of kings after having just finished rhythm of war and the way Wit makes fun of Renarin is actually Wit making sure Renarin ISNT further alienated from the class of people he runs with (everyone thinks Renarin is either too weak to take it (dalinar) or so strange Wit should only ever be concerned with him (like everyone else other than adolin and maybe elhokar) so the fact Wit just treats him same as anyone else is, like, meaningful) and then in. Oathbringer I think? When Wit has that insanity inducing moment with Shallan where he actually breaks down his walls a bit just to offer her comfort (INSANE) and then I think with Jasnah what strikes me most of all is he's not any specific way with her at all he just. Is.

And I guess in a way he's like that with kal too (he's like that with everyone really) except I don't count it because kal is a soldier and he's not alienated from polite society other than by being a darkeyes (but that's not true alienation that's just not being part of the 1% kind of) like even if kal FEELS alienated because of his trauma he doesn't actively take on that position as opposed to everyone else mentioned in this post (which btw part of how Jasnah does that is by being a heretic too)

Idk. End of sentence. I just go mad about these interactions. And I go double mad about Renarin and Jasnah and how they are... So similar. So different. So supremely Brother And Sister even when they're not

[sheepintheastralsea]

if renarin is evil and jasnah kills him I might have to . commit crimes. not my autistic son...

[likehephaestionwhodied]

This is all before headcanons or like even a deep analysis of the text or anything.

Canonically Kal's got clinical depression, Renarin is autistic and Shallan's got DID. By Word of God [redacted] is gay but that'll be canon in December with the next book. And Kal is indifferent to sex and romance *canonically* not to mention Jasnah and, well that whole thing.

I could sit here and argue that Kal's relationship with Adolin and Shallan is something akin to a queer platonic partnership. But I also look at what was freely given by Sanderson himself.

The thing about The Stormlight Archives is that the biggest epic fantasy author of our time has very quietly written a story where the main characters are depressed, have Autism and DID. There are gay characters and characters who are indifferent to sex and romance.

[moiraineswife]

Autistic!Jasnah: Masterpost

Okaaay, so, as you might have guessed from the title, this post is a long list of reasons Jasnah Kholin is autistic af.  

The short version: Jasnah is autistic because I, a Known Autism, say so. Have a nice day.

The long version (format): A long series of chronological quotes that all follow this pattern: Quote. *Insert ramble about why this is an Autistic Thing* *Possible and probable further ramble about why I’m emotional about that.

That’s literally it, people. Buckle up, I’ve picked through all three books (yes all three) to compose this post for y’all. It’s not going to be short.

To business:

The Way of Kings:

 Jasnah glanced at Shallan, noting her, then returned to her conversation.

Introducing Jasnah ‘I don’t have time for social niceties I’m busy’ Kholin. From the first interaction she’s...Bad at interacting. Iconic.

“Then we shall do an evaluation. Answer truthfully and do not exaggerate, as I will soon discover your lies. Feign no false modesty, either. I haven’t the patience for a simperer.”

Jasnah is both blunt, direct, and honest in her speech as she is in her expectations from others. She doesn’t have the energy to deal with manipulation/lying/tarting up the truth to make it more socially acceptable bc she is a busy autistic lady with shit to do. (really, though, what she’s literally demanding here is the first rule of the autistic’s guide to easy conversation. Clear. Simple. To the point. To frills, no fuss.)

 Jasnah didn’t argue further, and Shallan could see from her eyes that it was of no consequence to her if the king risked his life. The same apparently went for Shallan, for Jasnah didn’t order her away.

People do what people want to do and Jasnah doesn’t waste any time pretending she cares/that it matters to her for the sake of appearances. Again, this woman has a vendetta against typical social niceties and I love it.

“Now?” the king said, cradling his granddaughter. “But we are going to have a feast—”

“I appreciate the offer,” Jasnah said, “but I find myself with an abundance of everything but time.”

Do I need to point out the lack of social niceties again or are y’all sensing a pattern at this point? *King lovingly embraces his darling granddaughter that Jasnah just saved and orders a feast prepared in her honour* Jasnah: ‘Thanks but no I’m too busy to socialise.’

Jasnah was also a rationalist, a woman with the audacity to deny the existence of the Almighty himself based on her own reasoning. Jasnah would appreciate strength, but only if it was shaped by logic.

Jasnah feelings>>>>>>logic. This is a fairly common theme, of Jasnah being ruled less by emotions/sentiment/societal pressures/expectations and much more by logic/her own reasoning. She has her own way of looking at the world, her own rules for how it works, and she won’t be swayed by anyone else’s opinions on how she should feel/behave.

Jasnah turned to look out of the balcony into the dark space of the Veil. “I know what people say of me. I should hope that I am not as harsh as some say, though a woman could have far worse than a reputation for sternness. It can serve one well.”

Jasnah not being very self-aware in how people actually perceive her is also an autistic thing. Shallan notes several times that Jasnah is actually nowhere near as harsh/stern as she’s reputed to me, and, more importantly, she’s nowhere near as harsh/stern as she perceives herself to be. She also fails to note that Shallan actually enjoys the work/the challenge. This also implies that she takes what people say about her at face value and doesn’t have the necessary social skills to refute them.

Shallan tried to judge Jasnah’s mood, but the older woman’s emotions were impossible to read. 

Again, this is a fairly common autistic trait. We struggle to read other people’s body language, but they often struggle to read ours as well. A part of this is probably Jasnah deliberately cultivating this kind of persona, but even so, she’s too unsure of how she comes across to have completely mastered this.

Jasnah carefully removed its contents, neatly lining up the brushes, pencils, pens, jar of lacquer, ink, and solvent. She placed the stacks of paper, the notebooks, and the finished pictures in a line.

Oh look, it’s one of the world’s biggest Autism Stereotypes (which I’m totally guilty of too): lining all the things up neatly, and making them Orderly.

At least with Jasnah one knew where one stood.

Jasnah of the straightforward, blunt honesty and ‘what you see is what you get’ strikes again.

When Jasnah was deeply immersed in one of her projects, she often ignored all else.

And here we see the Autistic Jasnah in her natural habitat: hyperfixating on her special interest.

The rest is under the cut for length! 

Jasnah had elegant handwriting, of course—Jasnah rarely did anything without taking the time to perfect it. 

Jasnah not doing anything unless it’s done Properly and Right according to her? Also Jasnah being indifferent towards things she hasn’t put any time into perfecting (such as drawing).

“I always forgive curiosity, Your Majesty,” Jasnah said. “It strikes me as one of the most genuine of emotions.”

Again, Jasnah encouraging/reacting positively to genuine/honest emotions because she doesn’t Understand the whole guile/lying/not being honest thing because honestly what is the point?

“Must someone, some unseen thing, declare what is right for it to be right? I believe that my own morality—which answers only to my heart—is more sure and true than the morality of those who do right only because they fear retribution.”

Honestly, just, this whole thing. For a start it’s a massive transgression of the Vorin social norms/expectations, especially for Jasnah as a prominent public figure as the sister to the king. For another it’s that internal rules thing again. Jasnah’s world operates according to Jasnah’s principles and Jasnah’s understanding of it, no-one else’s.

But Shallan had caught a handful of occasions, mostly when Jasnah had been distracted, and had apparently forgotten she wasn’t alone.

*Jasnah ignores social expectations so hard she literally forgets other people exist in the world* Also, again, the hyperfixation on special interest.

“And yet, those men are off the street. The people of this city are that much safer. The issue that Taravangian has been so worried about has been solved, and no more theatergoers will fall to those thugs. How many lives did I just save?”

“I know how many you just took,” Shallan said.

Jasnah has a habit of doing this, this very cold, calculated, logical and pragmatic way of seeing the world as well as morality. Shallan considers the lives taken, the emotional aspect of the moral dilemma, the horror of murder. Jasnah just sees it almost as statistics, as four lives taken to save many more. Shallan also focuses on the cold hard facts of ‘I know how many people you just killed’ while Jasnah is engaged in weighing up the probability of how many she just saved. (In theory, the thugs might never have attacked anyone again, so Jasnah might not have saved anyone by her actions, which I think is what Shallan is getting at here. But that’s just...A moot point as far as Jasnah is concerned)

This is also an example of her black and white thinking. There’s more net good in what she did than there is net bad. That’s where her questioning/reasoning stops because it makes sense to her. Shallan exists in the grey area, but I don’t think Jasnah even sees it in cases like this.

But it wasn’t the act itself so much as the cold callousness of it that bothered her.

This is an interesting one, and something I’ll talk about more a bit later, probably, but the way Jasnah comes across vs how she actually is. I totally get why Shallan views what she did as cold and callous, and in a way I suppose it was. It was fully planned and fully intentional. But I think for her it’s this kind of...separation between logic and sentiment. I think Jasnah feels very strongly and very deeply, but she doesn’t often display that to other people, and I also think she believes there’s a time and a place for that. Also, black and white thinking again. It comes off as cold to Shallan, but for Jasnah I think it feels more like common sense.

 “You only needed to kill one of them.”

“No, I didn’t,” Jasnah said.

“Why? They would have been too frightened to do something like that again.”

“You don’t know that. I sincerely wanted those men gone. A careless barmaid walking home the wrong way cannot protect herself, but I can. And I will.”

Again, black and white thinking. (I’m also surprised this moment doesn’t generate more Discourse...Or maybe it does, I’ve just avoided it, either way) This is both a case for Jasnah not being able to predict people’s responses/behaviours, and also black and white thinking/internal rules at play. As far as she’s concerned those men are criminals. She has no assurances that they won’t hurt anyone else again. They’re already criminals, and there’s no chance for redemption or leeway, here. She’s made up her mind. They’re all criminals. They’re all dangerous. They all die.

Jasnah closed her eyes again, handing the brush toward Shallan. “Fifty strokes tonight, Shallan. It has been a fatiguing day.”

A)- routines the ‘tonight’ and the familiarity of this implies it’s something that happens every night. And the ‘fifty strokes’ is either another routine related thing, or an internal rule thing. Either way. Also this is probably a stim thing, since she’s using it to relax/de-stress.

Jasnah tapped her desktop with a fingernail.

Stimming.

“Brightness Jasnah does NOT like people entering her room. The maids have been told not to clean in there.” The king had promised that his maids were very carefully chosen, and there had never been issues of theft, but Jasnah still insisted that none enter her bedchamber.

Definitely, definitely, definitely an autistic thing. Issues with people entering Your Spaces or touching Your Things is a big autistic thing. (especially because the assurances about thieving don’t change her mind) Also the emphasis on not as in ‘this is a thing one absolutely does not do unless one wishes to die’.

“She’d believe me,” Shallan said. “She thinks she’s far more demanding than she is. Or…well, she is demanding. I just don’t mind as much as she thinks I do.”

Again, Jasnah taking what people say of her/how they say they perceive her at face value, and also lack of self-awareness in how people actually respond to her.

Jasnah regarded Shallan, face stiff, impassive. “I have been told that my tutelage is demanding, perhaps harsh. This is one reason why I often refuse to take wards.”

“I apologize for my weakness, Brightness,” Shallan said, looking down.

Jasnah seemed displeased. “I did not mean to suggest fault in you, child. I was attempting the opposite. Unfortunately I’m…unaccustomed to such behavior.”

Two things here: one, I’m like, 99% certain that Jasnah, who has been camped out at the hospital all this time waiting for Shallan to wake up is feeling anything but ‘impassive’ at this moment, in which case this is an example of her body language/facial expressions not matching up properly to her actual internal feelings, which is fairly common. And two: Jasnah’s apology being taken for a rebuttal and her obvious displeasure at it coming across that way when she literally intended the opposite (been there).

Also her general air of uncertainty/discomfort in this setting, which is one that’s obviously social/emotional. Also the fact that she pins her poor apology on lack of practice/familiarity with these kinds of interactions when, in theory, these kinds of things should come naturally to people. So like, lil bit of hinting/implication of scripting social things her, which I think her initial words reek of as well, as she’s said similar things before.

“You make it sound as if you were waiting out there.”

Jasnah didn’t reply.

“But your research!”

“Can be done in the hospital waiting chamber.” She hesitated. “It has been somewhat difficult for me to focus these last few days.”

“Jasnah! That’s quite nearly HUMAN of you!”

Again, a few things here, firstly that Jasnah is othered in a way by Shallan (and this isn’t the only time this happens, either) because of her lack of emotional response/social stuff. Secondly the fact that she’s clearly uncomfortable/struggles with this kind of conversation – the hesitation, the lack of responses are very much at odds with her usual composure and the way she has an answer for literally everything.

Words of Radiance:

She was all too glad to be leaving the stuffy room, which stank of too many perfumes mingling.

Prologue and we’ve already got Jasnah experiencing sensory issues in a crowded room with lots of perfume. What a way to kick things off.

“Many people consider that sort of thing enjoyable.”

“Many people, unfortunately, are idiots.”

Her father smiled. “Is it terribly difficult for you?” he asked softly. “Living with the rest of us, suffering our average wits and simple thoughts? Is it lonely to be so singular in your brilliance, Jasnah?”

A)- Jasnah obviously not enjoying social events/parties (she literally spends all of this one...contemplating the assassination she’s plotting. Like. Mood.)

B)- Gavilar’s comment is...Strangely sad, I think?? And perhaps a bit too on point. (This is very much just my reading of things but)...I don’t know. I see Jasnah trying to make a little quip/a joke here and it being misinterpreted because of her tone. And then, again, there’s that idea of othering that came up at the end of TWOK.

But I think the ‘is it lonely to be so singular in your brilliance?’ I think that....A huge part of that ‘brilliance’ comes from a mixture of Jasnah’s autistic traits: her special interest/her focus in them/her dedication to pursuing them...but also that sense of being other. Of not fitting in. The rest of “us” she doesn’t belong, she doesn’t fit.

And I think this idea of their ‘simple thoughts’ as opposed to Jasnah’s brilliant ones is a little like what we see with Renarin in Oathbringer, where Adolin explains that he isn’t trying to be lofty and brilliant, people sometimes just have difficulty following him. And I think this is what’s happening with Jasnah here (and in other places, she frequently talks about the difficulty she has in teaching, and how her methods are too intense and involved)

And also I think that....The saddest bit about this is that I think she was....Trying to joke here? Trying to fit in with those ordinary people, ‘the rest of us’, and just making a sarcastic joke on the back of her father’s comment about most people enjoying parties and she just sort of ‘well, most people are idiots aren’t they?’ And that’s what prompts this little moment here. So even when she’s trying to fit, and trying to belong, she’s still cast as the outcast, and misunderstood, and othered and it Hurts Me.

 I, she thought, need to write this experience down.

She would do so, then analyze and consider. Later. 

She literally topples into another world, effectively, and is just like ‘hm, I should make some notes on this and analyse them’. And. Yep. This is how she processes the world. By making sense of it, by treating everything according to Jasnah’s rules: it gets written down. It gets analysed. It gets understood. Bam.

Jasnah ignored the eyes of the sailors. It wasn’t that she didn’t notice men. Jasnah noticed everything and everyone. She simply didn’t seem to care, one way or another, how men perceived her.

Jasnah ‘I don’t have time for social expectations’ Kholin strikes again. Jasnah also just doesn’t care how anyone perceives her, social norms and expectations can go fuck themselves .

Jasnah grimaced at the thought. Shallan was always surprised to see visible emotion from her. Emotion was something relatable, something human—and Shallan’s mental image of Jasnah Kholin was of someone almost divine.

Again, the othering idea, as well as visible emotion being startling, as she’s typically so withdrawn/closed off/difficult to read. Yes friend, u guessed it, this is Peak Autism. Also the specific word in it being ‘relatable’ again marks that difference between Jasnah and...Everyone else. Again she’s different, again she doesn’t quite fit.

Jasnah relaxed visibly. “Yes, well, it did seem a workable solution. I had wondered, however, if you’d be offended.”

“Why on the winds would I be offended?”

“Because of the restriction of freedom implicit in a marriage,” Jasnah said. 

Again, Jasnah misreading things/not being able to anticipate how people are going to react to different things. Also her view of marriage as ‘restricting’ says a lot about how she sees it/probably relationships in general.

Power is an illusion of perception.”

Shallan frowned.

“Don’t mistake me,” Jasnah continued. “Some kinds of power are real—power to command armies, power to Soulcast. These come into play far less often than you would think. On an individual basis, in most interactions, this thing we call power—authority—exists only as it is perceived.

“You say I have wealth. This is true, but you have also seen that I do not often use it. You say I have authority as the sister of a king. I do. And yet, the men of this ship would treat me exactly the same way if I were a beggar who had convinced them I was the sister to a king. In that case, my authority is not a real thing. It is mere vapors—an illusion. I can create that illusion for them, as can you.”

This right here is Jasnah explaining passing, without ever using the word ‘passing’. This is how Jasnah sees social interactions. They’re all illusions, they’re all, effectively, lies. They aren’t real to her. How people perceive others isn’t something that she can fit into her box of neat facts and logic. It’s this ever changing, insubstantial thing, ‘mere vapours’. And though she’s talking here about power and authority, the basic principle applies to literally every single social interaction ever. Aka: the secret behind how Jasnah Kholin (somehow) managed to convince ppl she’s allistic.

The orders of knights were a construct, just as all society is a construct, used by men to define and explain. Not every man who wields a spear is a soldier, and not every woman who makes bread is a baker. And yet weapons, or baking, become the hallmarks of certain professions.”

Actual footage of Jasnah Kholin going to war against social constructs and their flimsiness.

It was a picture of Jasnah, drawn by Shallan herself. Shallan had given it to the woman after being accepted as her ward. She’d assumed Jasnah had thrown it away—the woman had little fondness for visual arts, which she considered a frivolity.

Instead, she’d kept it here with her most precious things. 

This is one of my favourite Underrated Jasnah Moments tbh because it says so much about her with such a simple gesture. We’ve established from the past book and a half that Jasnah is pretty bad when it comes to social interactions, and she’s even worse when it comes to displaying her emotions. But she’s not emotionless. She, personally, doesn’t see the value in visual arts, and hasn’t dedicated any time to it herself. Yet she keeps the gift that Shallan gives her. She understands how important this is to Shallan, and she quite literally treasures the art that Shallan gives her, and keeps it with her precious research/notes (and, like, Symbolism with her keeping her sentimental gifts and logic fuelled research in the same place/with the same level of importance/value, except one is hidden, and one is displayed)

And, like, Shall literally assumes Jasnah had just thrown away the picture?? And instead she’s got it kept safe with her most treasured possessions? Like??? The TL;DR version of this point is that Jasnah is horrendous at displaying her emotions/showing people how she feels about them/what they mean to her, but she feels things, goddammit. And now so am I.

What of this Sadeas? she thought, flipping to a page in the notebook. It listed him as conniving and dangerous, but noted that both he and his wife were sharp of wit. A man of intelligence might listen to Shallan’s arguments and understand them.

Aladar was listed as another highprince that Jasnah respected. Powerful, known for his brilliant political maneuvers. He was also fond of games of chance. Perhaps he would risk an expedition to find Urithiru, if Shallan highlighted the potential riches to be found.

Hatham was listed as a man of delicate politics and careful planning. Another potential ally. Jasnah didn’t think much of Thanadal, Bethab, or Sebarial. The first she called oily, the second a dullard, and the third outrageously rude.

She studied them and their motivations for some time. 

Right. Now. Correct my autistic ass if I’m wrong, here, but I’m like 89% certain that ‘taking notes on the basic personalities/literally studying the people around you and making notes on the way they behave so you can actually understand them’ is not a typical allistic thing to do.

Shallan turned back toward him. That pride in his voice didn’t at all match what Jasnah had written of the man.

Jasnah can literally predict the oncoming apocalypse by the power of research, can she pin down some basic Facts about the people she’s observing around her? Nope. I wonder why.

“She wouldn’t let me be a mother to her, Dalinar,” Navani said, staring into the distance. “Do you know that? It was almost like . . . like once Jasnah climbed into adolescence, she no longer needed a mother. I would try to get close to her, and there was this coldness, like even being near me reminded her that she had once been a child. What happened to my little girl, so full of questions?”

Two things: one, this is probably (agonisingly) relating to whatever trauma Jasnah experienced as a child and I’ve got Painful Emotions about it. Secondly, Jasnah being very mature for her age/shucking Navani’s influence because it wasn’t what she thought she needed/wanted is, like, not exactly the most tactful/self-aware/socially conscious thing in the entire universe.

“You’re still human,” Shallan said, reaching across, putting her hand on Navani’s knee. “We can’t all be emotionless chunks of rock like Jasnah.”

Navani smiled. “She sometimes had the empathy of a corpse, didn’t she?”

Oh look, it’s canon low!empathy Jasnah: from the words of her own mother no less.

(Also, small note here, as a low!empathy autistic myself: I really love the way Jasnah is written because it complements my own understanding of empathy which is...Fairly complicated. Jasnah isn’t just like none and done here. It’s not that she just doesn’t feel empathy so she doesn’t care? She isn’t characterised as this brutal, unfeeling, robotic ice queen. There are a lot of nuances and complexities here as to how she relates to those around her and I love it.

She obviously loves her family very deeply, and is driven to protect and help them (in a very practical, logical way I might add. Which is typically how I relate to care/love as well. You want a shoulder to cry on? I’m going to sit there awkwardly, pat you on the head, and hope you stop soon. There’s a practical solution to your current problem? Heaven and earth will be moved to achieve it.) She keeps Shallan’s drawing, even treasures it. And I think that she obviously....Feels her lack of feeling (if that makes sense)

See: the hospital scene with Shallan where she attempts to apologise. She’s...Uncomfortable with the emotional aspect of things, and she’s completely wrong about Shallan’s intentions, and actually her actions as well. There’s a block there with the empathy...But that’s obviously something that doesn’t exactly...Sit right with her? She’s quite self-depreciating in that scene, actually, and it’s clear (to me, anyway) that there’s the sense of her being aware that there’s something...Missing. Something that...Doesn’t quite line up. Something that makes her different and stops her relating to people perhaps in the way that she wants to.

Anyway: don’t equate lack of empathy with lack of love: a novel by Brandon Sanderson. God bless. Intentional or not, this is one of the most relatable low!empathy characters I’ve ever read and I’m here for it.

“Chana knows, I wondered sometimes how I raised that child without strangling her. By age six, she was pointing out my logical fallacies as I tried to get her to go to bed on time.”

Shallan grinned. “I always just assumed she was born in her thirties.”

“Oh, she was. It just took thirty-some years for her body to catch up.” Navani smiled. “I won’t take this from you, but neither should I allow you to attempt a project so important on your own. I would be part. Figuring out the puzzles that captivated her . . . it will be like having her again. My little Jasnah, insufferable and wonderful.”

Again, a few things here: this concept of autistic children being far more mature/behaving like ‘little adults’ is actually pretty common. Also the puzzle-solving thing is just. Relatable.

Oathbringer

“Brightness?” Shallan said. “But … Shardblades aren’t fabrials. They’re spren, transformed by the bond.”

“As are fabrials, after a manner of speaking,” Jasnah said. “You do know how they’re made, don’t you?”

“Only vaguely,” Shallan said. This was how their reunion went? A lecture? Fitting.

Jasnah is believed dead for months on end, reunites with Shallan after who knows how long: immediately starts infodumping to her. Shallan:.......’Figured.’

People were always surprised to see emotion from Jasnah, but Dalinar considered that unfair. She did smile—she merely reserved the expression for when it was most genuine.

Jasnah back at it with the only bothering with emotions when they’re genuine. (Also Dalinar getting all indignant about people not understanding Jasnah/mischaracterising her is my favourite)

“They will try,” Jasnah said, “to define you by something you are not. Don’t let them. I can be a scholar, a woman, a historian, a Radiant. People will still try to classify me by the thing that makes me an outsider. They want, ironically, the thing I don’t do or believe to be the prime marker of my identity. I have always rejected that, and will continue to do so.”

Obviously she’s talking about her heresy here, but with a tiny smidge of tweaking it works well for her being autistic, too. She will always be a little bit different, always not fit, always be defined by being an outsider.

“In the face of such an atrocity, I would consider the sacrifice of one or more Heralds to be a small price.”

“Storms!” Kaladin said, standing up straight. “Have you no sympathy?”

“I have plenty, bridgeman. Fortunately, I temper it with logic. Perhaps you should consider acquiring some at a future date.”

Again on the feelings tempered by logic, thing. (Also Kaladin/Jasnah is interesting because they’re basically....polar opposites, and I enjoy the dynamic. But that’s for another day.)

“If you wish, Captain,” Jasnah snapped, “I can get you some mink kits to cuddle while the adults plan. None of us want to talk about this, but that does not make it any less inevitable.”

“I’d love that,” Kaladin responded. “In turn, I’ll get you some eels to cuddle. You’ll feel right at home.”

Jasnah, curiously, smiled. 

Jasnah: approves of frank, honest comments. Even if they’re mildly insulting. As long as they’re genuine.

They didn’t talk tactics too specifically; that was a masculine art, and Dalinar would want his highprinces and generals to discuss the battlefields. Still, Shallan didn’t fail to notice the tactical terms Jasnah used now and then.

In things like this, Shallan had difficulty understanding the woman. In some ways, Jasnah seemed fiercely masculine. She studied whatever she pleased, and she talked tactics as easily as she talked poetry. She could be aggressive, even cold—Shallan had seen her straight-up execute thieves who had tried to rob her. Beyond that … well, it probably was best not to speculate on things with no meaning, but people did talk. Jasnah had turned down every suitor for her hand, including some very attractive and influential men. People wondered. Was she perhaps simply not interested?

All of this should have resulted in a person who was decidedly unfeminine. Yet Jasnah wore the finest makeup, and wore it well, with shadowed eyes and bright red lips. She kept her safehand covered, and preferred intricate and fetching styles of braids from her hairdresser. Her writings and her mind made her the very model of Vorin femininity.

Jasnah just not caring about social/cultural gender norms. Jasnah does what Jasnah wants. But also, gender roles, and tbh the entire concept of gender, is a social construct, it’s something a lot of autistic folks struggle with. (Also non-binary/agender!Jasnah just, as a fun little aside) 

 “Surely,” she said softly, “if Jasnah had known that I’d just confronted a deep insecurity of mine, she’d have shown some empathy. Right?”

“Jasnah?” Pattern asked. “I do not think you are paying attention, Shallan. She is not very empathetic.”

A)- Jasnah probably didn’t notice and B)- low!empathy Jasnah again.

Jasnah rubbed her temples. “Storms. This is why I never take wards.”

“Because they give you so much trouble.”

“Because I’m bad at it. I have scientific evidence of that fact, and you are but the latest experiment.” Jasnah shooed her away, rubbing her temples.

‘I have scientific evidence of the fact I’m not good at mentoring/teaching/with people in general’ actual quote from Jasnah herself. Also, just, the language here? The mentoring/taking of wards is an intimate social relationship in Vorin culture, but the way Jasnah speaks of it she uses words like ‘scientific evidence’ and ‘experiment’ which says a lot about how she views relationships in general tbh. 

Also, I think her self-consciousness is something that’s interesting to note. This isn’t the first time she questions her teaching abilities/methods, in fact it’s one of her biggest and most obvious insecurities, it’s something that she’s very aware of. She knows she’s bad at this, and it bothers her. 

“Ivory, you think all humans are unstable.”

“Not you,” he said, lifting his chin. “You are like a spren. You think by facts. You change not on simple whims. You are as you are.”

She gave him a flat stare.

“Mostly,” he added. “Mostly. But it is, Jasnah. Compared to other humans, you are practically a stone!”

[…]

“Jasnah?” Ivory asked. “Am I … in error?”

“I am not so much a stone as you think, Ivory. Sometimes I wish I were.”

And again with Jasnah being factual-based when it comes to her decisions ,and emotions based when it comes to her motivations. Jasnah Kholin feels things so deeply I will physically fight you over this matter. Also, given what we’ve seen, it definitely seems as though Ivory/Inkspren/Jasnah’s ideals are concerned with logic/reason/rightness, and that being a defining aspect of her/her order is interesting in the context of her being autistic. 

Renarin still lurked at the far side of the room, mumbling to himself. Or perhaps to his spren? She absently read his lips.

Since, as far as we know, Jasnah isn’t deaf/hoh, the lip reading is something she acquired for other purposes. Probably as part of her paranoia/wish to protect her family, but it’d also probably help with auditory processing disorder. Which is basically where your ears hear words fine, but your brain scrambles them up and fails to make sense of them. Also a lot of autistic folks (self included) tend to watch people’s mouths instead of their eyes (bc eye contact Sucks) and I’m not saying I can lip-read, but if I could it’d definitely make life easier.

But when, before this, had she last heard him laugh?

“Maybe,” Navani said, “we should encourage him to take a break and go out with the bridgemen for the evening.”

“I’d rather keep him here,” Jasnah said, flipping through her pages. “His powers need additional study.”

Navani would talk to Renarin anyway and encourage him to go out more with the men. There was no arguing with Jasnah, any more than there was arguing with a boulder. You just stepped to the side and went around.

Jasnah being completely and utterly oblivious to the hidden agenda/undercurrent to Navani’s thoughts which is ‘Renarin is comfortable with the men/is enjoying himself with them, maybe we should encourage that?’ and just responds to her mother’s words and nothing else. The boulder analogy makes me laugh (but also recalls what Ivory said about her being ‘stone’ which is, again, a kind of othering, a setting apart of the ‘normal’ humans, based on how she emotes/deals with things/processes fact.

I’m sorry, Mother. I’ve been dealing with a lot of lesser ardents today. My didactic side might have inflated.”

“You have a didactic side? Dear, you hate teaching.”

“Which explains my mood, I should think. I—”

A lot of autistic folk find it difficult to teach people, largely because, if they explain something in a certain way, away in which they understand, they have trouble rephrasing it/altering it to make other people understand it as well. Can definitely, definitely see Jasnah struggling with this.

Jasnah preferred to work alone, which was odd, considering how good she was at getting people to do what she wanted. 

This shocks me to my very core so it does.

Next to her, Jasnah stood with arms wrapped around herself, eyes red. Navani reached toward her, but Jasnah pulled away from the others and stalked off toward the palace proper.

Oh look, it’s touch!averse Jasnah. (she’s really not very touchy feely at all) Also Jasnah not knowing how to deal with her emotions/grief and withdrawing from people around her. Also I’m calling the arms wrapped around herself as a pressure stim. Fight me.

Jasnah met his eyes, chewing her lip as she’d always done as a child.

Jasnah having anxious!stims (that she probably forced herself to unlearn)

“Forget I asked,” Dalinar said, sharing a look with Navani and Jasnah. Navani smiled fondly at what was probably a huge social misstep, but he suspected Jasnah agreed with him. She’d probably have seized the banks and used them to fund the war.

Jasnah ‘fuck your social niceties, I have a war to win’ Kholin.

Suddenly they were young again. He was a trembling child, weeping on her shoulder for a father who didn’t seem to be able to feel love. Little Renarin, always so solemn. Always misunderstood, laughed at and condemned by people who said similar things about Jasnah behind her back.

Mm, who else was ‘solemn’ as a child? Maybe ‘correcting logical fallacies at age six’ ‘no longer needed a mother when she reached adolescence’ Jasnah. And, like, ‘people mock Renarin for his autistic traits...Jasnah is also mocked for having these exact same traits.’ It’s basically canon, people.

Jasnah fell to her knees, then pulled Renarin into an embrace. He broke down crying, like he had as a boy, burying his head in her shoulder.

Also, the fact that Renarin instinctively went to Jasnah for comfort, not Navani, who eagerly mothers literally everyone around her, or anyone else, he went to Jasnah ‘empathy of a corpse, made of literal stone’ Kholin for comfort and support tells me something. It tells me that these two had an understanding. That Jasnah understood Renarin, and that Renarin understood Jasnah, and that there perhaps a reason for that that has to do with their shared brain weirdness.

This is also the first time, as I recall, that Jasnah responds with physical affection. (And this doesn’t undermine what I said about her being touch!averse, she is, but a)- she initiates this contact and b)- it’s with someone she’s clearly comfortable with this level of contact) 

Jasnah glanced over her shoulder at the gathering army. “And perhaps … this is one time when a lecture isn’t advisable. With all my complaints about not wanting wards, you’d think I would be able to resist instructing people at inopportune times. Keep moving.”

I have said it before and I will say it again, Jasnah infodumping to an exhausted Shallan in the middle of a fucking battlefield is the most autistic thing I have ever witnessed in my entire life.

These had always been right. Until today—until they had proclaimed that Jasnah Kholin’s love would fail.

And, to summarise it all neatly, Jasnah Kholin, empathy of a corpse, heart of a boulder, whose love in the end never failed her. *wipes tear* my beautiful autistic queen is good and full of love and feeling but just being really bad at showing it to people. We do not deserve her.

TL;DR: Jasnah is autistic af. It’s basically canon. Fight me.

[isdalinarhot]

kholins ranked by amount of autistic swag

1. renarin. the canon one. yeah baby

2. jasnah. jasnah’s everything has so much autistic swag. good for her

3. dalinar. dalinar is literally your neurodivergent father who doesnt get diagnosed because hes lived his whole life functioning and whenever you talk about some thing you do because of autism hes like everybody does that 🙄 because he doesnt Realize

4. gavilar. the same as dalinar but like. meaner

5. navani. she is this high because she said dalinar’s voice was immutable as mathematics and there is nothing autisticer than being like babygirl your voice is sexy like math

6. elhokar. he’s got a personality disorder so he Is neurodivergent but i don’t think he’s autistic, yknow?

7. gavinor. he is 5 we just don’t know yet he hasn’t gotten screened yet

8. evi. evi isnt autistic shes just riran. love her though <3

9. adolin. love you mr neurotypical adolin. holding down the fort

10. aesudan. can you fucking imagine

[isapolvorita]

Yesterday i was talking with my brother about how all in the principal cast of the stormlight archive is not what do you normally expect? Like, they all have their "things", Kal is depressed, Shallan has multiple personality syndrome, Renarin is autistic and the list goes on.

But we thought about adolin and ?? There is people who says he has adhd but i dont think so?? My brother says he has a hero complex, and i thought "no, is Kal who has it" but maybe they two have it? But in different ways, like Kal is going to sacrifice his life wethever someone is in danger. But Adolin is more like sacrifice his uh i dont know how to say it but more like himself? Like he killed Sadeas for protect his father, he stans Shallan and Kaladin when they have their own problems and im sure that if Jasnah wasnt there and he never met Shallan, he will become king when Elhokar died

He put all the people well-being first and *never* *none* a *single* character in the book mentions that and i feel so bad about my boy.

(disclaimer: maybe Renarin metions that and i just dont remember because if someone cares about Adolin is Renarin)

[spoilersandrambling]

Rant incoming!

So firstly, I like a good romance as much as the next girl who has been obsessed with Jane Austen since she was five.

But the fact that pretty much every single character is put in a relationship either by the author or by the fandom - it just tires me out. Is it too much to ask for an arc that doesn’t require marriage/a romantic relationship?

Case in point: the Stormlight Archive.

I love Jasnah Kholin. She’s intelligent, driven, doesn’t let anyone talk down to her and despite her outward facade she cares deeply about her family and works tirelessly to protect them.

But one of the things I liked most about her was that she was single. She had no interest in relationships.

I don’t hate the Jasnah/Hoid pairing (how can I when the ‘harsher Wit’ scene is just brilliant?). What frustrates me is the fact that Brandon Sanderson felt the need to give her a partner. Why? Was it really necessary? Maybe it will be explained in future books and will have actual plot relevance. Knowing Sanderson, there’s probably some plot twist involved. For now though I’m just annoyed.

The other single character I love is Renarin. He’s a sweet, autistic, intelligent character who has great relationships with the people around him. Why does he need a romance?

Thank goodness Kaladin is still single.

[peachdoxie]

so i just finished the Mistborn trilogy (loved it omg it was amazing) and, maybe due to your blog (by maybe i mean definitely) I now want to read Stormlight Archive but I was wondering if there is any queer representation in it, since Mistborn left me wanting a little?

Yes, there is queer representation in Stormlight! It's not much, but considering that the vast majority of fiction contains zero queer characters, it's something. I'll list them out below.

Warning for minor spoilers

Shallan Davar. Bisexual woman via Word of Brandon. Fans pointed out that Shallan seemed attracted to a woman in the first book, so Brandon retroactively made that canon. It only comes up a few times throughout the books.

Drehy. Man who is "courting a man." Only referenced once in the third book and does not specify his sexuality.

Jasnah Kholin. Asexual woman who experiences intellectual attraction. Brandon wrote a detailed reddit post about this shortly before the fourth book was released last month explaining how he decided to make Jasnah ace. One of her POV chapters spends some time talking about her experience with (a lack of) sexual attraction. It's canon in every sense save for actually using the word "asexual."

Ral-na. Transgender man. The king of an island nation, he is afab in the second book. In the novella set between books three and four, Dawnshard, the POV character mentions that he now presents as a man, due to gaining the magic powers of the series. It is also confirmed that the magic powers enabled him to physically transition from a female body to a male body.

Those are the four canon/Word of Brandon canon queer characters in the books, as best I recall (@the fandom please list any I missed). There are a few honorable mentions of characters who are coded as queer in some respect, but how canonical any of these are is unknown.

Kaladin Stormblessed. Man who has expressed little romantic or sexual attraction to other people, save for two women (well, technically one was a teenager when he was a teenager), but only briefly. My reading of him is that he's demisexual or gray ace, though this may be proven wrong in future books.

Renarin Kholin. Man. Due to some comments Brandon has made about the way the magic works in Stormlight, some people have speculated that Renarin is gay. However, there is no canonical evidence for this. Furthermore, Renarin's relationship to gender is complicated because he is disabled (autistic and epileptic and wears glasses) which has interfered with his ability to live up to the masculine ideals of a highly gender-regimented society. Whether or not this he can be considered "queer" is a matter of debate because of the intersection of gender and disability.

Several characters of one of the non-human races in Stormlight. I'm keeping this vague to avoid spoilers, but several characters of this race have mentioned they had little interest in "mating" with others. It's difficult to apply the word "queer" to them because, as beings with non-human bodies, their relationships to gender and sexuality are not like ours. However, certain readings may find their disinterest in mating to be metaphoric for asexuality. It is not a significant part of the story.

There's another example that might count as being transgender, but the process by which it happens is a fairly major spoiler, so I won't detail it here. It is not a significant part of the story.

The ardents. More or less the monks of the dominant religion of the main characters. They are essentially a non-gendered category of humans that anyone of any gender can join, socially transitioning to a genderless class of monks. While they fall outside our world's gender binary and in that respect queer, they are not considered as such in the context of the fictional world.

It can sometimes be difficult to determine with Brandon's works since sex and sexual attraction play barely any role in his books, so a lot of characters are in that "straight until proven queer" default zone. However, Brandon has stated that he's working to incorporate more queer characters into his books since he's heard from queer fans about how important representation is, so I'm hoping that more queer characters will appear in future books.

Also, if you haven't read it yet, Mistborn era 2 has a badass wlw gunsmith in it, though that's also only briefly referenced.

[kingjasnah]

a canonically autistic mlm character is going to be a main pov character in my favorite fantasy series i literally am so happy 😭

ive been this pic for the ten minutes it's been since i found out im ESTATIC like this series started out like oh ive never seen a fantasy main character with chronic depression and then oh ive never seen a fantasy main character with DID and then oh hello ace jasnah? and fifty confirmations later we have renarin. who's getting his OWN BOOK. he's gonna get 1200+ pages to tell his story and showcase his narrative and im gonna aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[rlainarin]

@antivan-beau tagged me a few days ago in this ao3 meme

How many works do you have on AO3?

36! and a few orphaned ones out there I'll gladly claim if anyone remembers, I just orphaned all my Torchwood stuff when my special interest faded

What’s your total AO3 words count?

128,143. 71,000 of that from one fic!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5: Sentimentality - character study of Renarin and Jasnah's relationship, because I am very passionate about cousin relationships!!!

4: make an honest man of me - lol, my spitefic against the fact that nobody was writing any sexual fic for the autistic character. sure I don't write smut, but at the very least I can write a character exploration of an allo/sex-neutral ace relationship with some adorable wordplay

3: And Your Light Sets Me Free - hey wait this one is also a spitefic lol. my first Kalarin fic by a long shot so it's had a while to accumulate them

2: The Rhythm of Calling Renarin Kholin Cute - second fic for the ship, the one that started the tag, fresh off the nigh-canonization! got a lot of feelings about Renarin and Rlain I'd been assuming nobody else cared about since Oathbringer out, lol

1: This Is Ourselves, Under Pressure - I am SO proud that my most popular fic is an autism one!!!!!!!!

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

usually! I don't always have anything to say but I try to. we're all in this together!!!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

oh, away from all these useless fears, and change for sure. death of the self + immortality combo, and the hints I dropped about how things went for Renarin and Adolin...

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Can You Feel The Love Tonight, my oooold singular Warehouse 13 story, for the fact it's also an unspoken fix-it for certain facts that get in the way of ideal found family shenanigans.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

ok so I haven't posted one since my ff.net days but I have like, three pages of a Stormlight Archive/Stargate SG-1 crossover somewhere in my files

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

nahhhh lucky for my somft self

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

does translation without consent count?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I had one of my Fullmetal Alchemist fics from my ff.net days posted in Russian without my permission!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

not truly co-written per se but definitely brainstormed a lot with other people

What’s your all-time favourite ship?

mmmmm Kalarin <3 it's just been part of my soul so long!!!

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I'm not ready to give up on now you know me, and I'm not afraid, but two books of canon-divergence and the death of a friendship with my main beta and cheerleader on... it's rough

and I'm pretty sure I'm never going to finish the third in my immediately post-Oathbringer Kalarin series, where Renarin meets Lirin and Hesina. :(

What are your writing strengths?

banter and p a i n <3

What are your writing weaknesses?

striking a medium between no description and paragraphs of it for everything T-T

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

man, I wish I was good enough to conlang

I wanna do so MUCH stuff with languages and language barriers but I am... extremely monolingual so I'm not confident in a n y t h i n g

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I once turned Anne of Green Gables fic in for homework <3

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

gotta be now you know me <3 poured my damn heart and soul into that one