#evi kholin

[bookishbroadwayandblind]

Dalinar's reaction to Adolin's Birth: Born unto light... wow I'm a new man the world is a beautiful place life is a miracle-

Dalinar’s Reaction to Renarin's Birth: What kinda stupid name is that? Who even is this? He's giving weakling. I'm going back to battle

Evi: ????

[starling-illu]

character design practice with stormlight ladies <3

[vanilla-vivillon]

WHO IS COOKED 🗣️ 🔥 🔥 ‼️ 🧑‍🍳 🔥

[wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart]

thinking about how adolin prefers duelling over real war. thinking about how renarin falters with his sword even if his epilepsy isn't in the way. thinking about how dalinar looks at his two sons and doesn't want them to know him as the blackthorn. crying about how adolin and renarin keep evi and her legacy alive just through their mere existence. throwing up about dalinar only heeding her words once he can't remember them.

[sunroseofthewood]

What if Evi was resurrected by Odium?

[sorchasolas]

SHUT THE FUCK UP.

EVI CAUGHT ON FIRE LMAOOOOOOOO

[cyeayt]

Imagine spending your whole adolescence and fresh adulthood defending your hasbeen dad from insults (that totally aren’t true, shut up!) and then you find out that he killed your mom and suddenly everyone’s talking about forgiveness and your dad is the most powerful and respected man in the world and no one, not even the narrative, seems to care about your dead mom for more than a split second. Cause that’s never happened to me but if it did I would be a massive bitch about it I would be causing problems so I think Adolin is being really graceful rn.

Disclaimers: oversimplification + emotional repression + I haven’t finished WaT + yeah they should talk about it.

[swagspren]

Would love to know more about the cultural things Evi imparted to Adolin and Renarin. We always get Dalinar being like “soft and friendly and sensitive” and like okay awesome. But what stuff do they DO that Evi taught them?? Like little things habits, rituals, etc. Also, Before Dalinar gets his memories back, was he ever like deeply confused that Renarin or Adolin is just burning really potent incense??? Did they have any of their mothers accent as kids?

[themoonstonechronicler]

sja-anat is a little black cat that is a void with eyes and kitty cat ears doing the tongue blep. to me

[isdalinarhot]

Seeing as you think of Dalinar’s character a lot, was curious if you had thoughts about Evi forgiving him in Oathbringer through the beyond.

short answer: if i was evi i would not have done that

long answer: i think it would have been more impactful if evi either explicitly Did Not Forgive Him but said something about being proud of him anyway, or he just never got that Connection with evi in the first place and she stayed dead. because sometimes you get your life together and you do the right things and you genuinely become a better person than you once were but the people you've hurt won't take you back and will hate you for hurting them for the rest of their lives. and despite that truth, you stay better anyway. you don't take responsibility for what you have done if you must fall you will rise each time a better man because you'll be forgiven. you do it because it's the right thing to do. and we do get some of that in rhythm of war, where even though dalinar is like, physically incapable of killing people anymore, people tend to trust him less and think of him as less honorable because rathalas has gone public. but yeah i think that was sort of a fumble. i suspect part of it is brandon sanderson is a flavor of christian, and a big thing in christianity is Divine Forgiveness For One's Sins but jesus is not in the cosmere so evi had to do it. but yeah i think its a cheap character moment, although i do think its in character for evi to immediately forgive dalinar for Literally Their Whole Marriage And Her Gruesome Death because he stops killing people. like remember when he didnt kill one specific 6 year old and evi was like hugging him and crying. thats the kind of person who would forgive someone who treated her like shit even when it's like. he set you on fire evi. you are allowed to divorce him.

[cosmereplay]

I am on the Lucy Liu as Evi train and I'm never stopping. Her baby is even Adolin!!! Look at those smiles and tell me it's not them! You can't!!

[aphroditesmoon]

I don't think we give Evi Kholin enough credit as a mother. I'd like to think that Adolin's empathy, open mindedness and respect for women were traits taught by his mother.

[starling-illu]

cosmere inktober 4 : game

[vanilla-vivillon]

No one gave two shots about that woman or that city

[wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart]

Renarin only knows of his mother through other people's perception of his person.

He feels guilty about it, sometimes. He knows from his brother that Evi only spent half of the year with her oldest son - staying behind with the weak and sickly young one whenever Adolin was sent to away to learn about war from his father. Sometimes he thinks he remembers flashes. A warm soft hand wiping away a stray tear. A lock of blonde hair tickling his nose. The smell of incense, which used to make him dizzy but now kind of feels like home.

On bad days he thinks that they are lies. Memories he forced into existence because the alternative is too unbearable. On good days he wages a 50% chance that they are more than just the fruits of his imagination, born out of Adolin's stories.

Everyone tells him he reminds them of his mother - not in looks, but in disposition. The ardents said it with pity, back when he regularly went to the training grounds to see what he couldn't have. His fellow nobles said it with contempt, whispers just loud enough for Renarin to know he was supposed to hear them.

Renarin only believes it when Adolin says it. Not distressed or gleeful, as if it were something to be ashamed of, but melancholic and wondrous, like something to be treasured.

Adolin has an excellent memory. He has to, in order to be able to be such a brilliant tactician. Especially considering how confused he still gets about the sigils. That is fine, of course. He is an excellent general, always knowing how to best use the troops at his disposal and keep morale high. So what if he regularly switches the symbols for sword and grain? "Lucky you aren't one of us", the ardents say good-naturedly - because Adolin Kholin makes even his faults seem charming. Girls of all classes giggle about how manly it is for Adolin to jumble his sigils. "A womanly art", they say, glancing at Renarin's little notebook. Because of course the Blackthorn's heir had the sense to choose the correct faults to possess.

Sometimes Renarin wishes he could hate his brother, even if just a little bit. Maybe it would make things easier. But Adolin is the only one who remembers the Riran legends she used to whisper to them in the night. Adolin is the only one who points out that he inherited his tendency to hide his smiled and laughs behind his hand from her. As if they were something secret or forbidden, he'd said, like a treasure. Adolin is the only one to recount her stories about the endless sunken forests. They had planned to go there together - before the assassin in white killed his uncle and the war started and everything got put on hold.

Dalinar refuses to talk about her. Renarin almost resents him for it, sometimes. Dalinar was already an adult when he got to know her, with a fully developed brain. Dalinar knew her in a way her children would never get to experience, and yet he keeps it all locked in tight. Renarin can't even remember the last time he said her name out loud.

Adolin is the one to always stand by him (even as his own father looks away in shame. He is trying, and Renarin wants to be grateful and understanding of his struggles, but the Blackthorn has never had cause to hide his inner truest feelings before). Adolin is the one to always think of him and his needs (even if it sometimes feels patronizing). Adolin is the one who made him believe that love can be unconditional.

(His working theory is that Adolin can't shackle himself to one person because he has too much love to give. When he told Adolin, the other almost started crying. "You're just like her", he'd said, reverently.)

Renarin used to go to as many war meetings as he could - even if he never managed to contribute much. He truly did try to keep up: even making up shortcuts and sigils of his own. But the almighty just loves throwing it in his face how unsuitable he is for battle - not only due to his body (which he holds no fault for!, as his father always reassures him, looking at him as if he were a particularly fascinating moving corpse), but due to his mind as well.

"You are just like your mother", they say. Sometimes he revels in it. Sometimes he gets annoyed. Sometimes he feels insulted in his mother's behalf. They are so blinded by his weakness, they don't see how he inherited the most alethi trait of all: greed.

Because sometimes Renarin wishes he was the oldest - not for the position or the power or the prestige, but in the hope that he also would've retained memories of her, even if it were in cost of Adolin's. Because sometimes Renarin wishes that Adolin had stayed with Dalinar year-round, so he could have his mother for himself alone just for a bit longer. Or that Adolin just never went, leaving Dalinar alone with his carnage and his armies. Because he does not want for money or food or safety or luxury, but still he wants more. He wants to hold a sword, even as he knows deep down he isn't made for battle. He wants to help defeat their enemies, even as he knows that actively and willingly taking a life would weigh on his soul. He wants to become a general, just so he can choose to go to the Ardentia instead. He doesn't want to go into the Ardentia, even though everyone knows that that would be a better place for him. He has so much and yet he wants more. Sometimes his demands sound reasonable. Sometimes he drowns in guilt.

Renarin doesn't know a lot about his mother. He only knows of her through a lense of absence. She was not a scribe like alethi women. She was too soft for the alethi people. She was not loud and did not command respect even though she was high-ranking nobility. Sometimes Renarin wonders if he will succumb to this same fate, after his death. Defined not by who he is, but by what he lacks.

Kindness is the sole attribute of her that survived. "She was kind", they said, and then they said nothing. At least there is that. Renarin hopes he will be remembered as kind as well, if nothing else. Sometimes he finds it hard looking Adolin or Dalinar in the face.

[aesudan-kholin]

Stormlight moodboards part 10: Evi