#just read the stormlight 5 preview and.

[stormtide-leviathan]

MAYALARAN CAN SPEAK?????

[bogkeep]

finally got around to reading tress of the emerald sea...!

it's the first of the brandsand kickstarter books i'm getting around to actually reading (well, listening to as an audiobook), and the one that compelled me the most from the previews we got. i liked it a lot! i loved the whimsical vibe and narration (95% of the time) and the worldbuilding and the characters. i had a great time!!!

BUT ALSO........ the multiverse aspects of the cosmere are starting to really turn me off of it. like i know that's the whole Deal but i just don't enjoy it. it always feels like a cop-out to Me when the story is solved with a super-powerful person appearing from a different planet that you need to read books X, Y, and Z to recognize. i'm sure it's fun for people who are fully immersed in it! but i'm not and i generally tend to prefer stories that are Self-Containted.

like i really really loved stormlight archive when i read it, and i still do, and i think cameos can be fun!! but the more off-world characters are involved with the plot it just... i'm less excited about it now. like i signed up for a story on this world but now it's gearing up to be that the whole multiverse is in danger or something? bleh. idk. my hype is dying.

anyway, as i said - i enjoyed the narration in tress 95% of the time. unfortunately the other 5% i found hoid to be insufferable and most of those times were when he addressed the audience. i think it Can work well, but for me it did Not. the Not Like Other Girls/Protagonist parts were also... ugh. like i can tell it was trying to do a subversion but it didn't really. like idk i don't like it when books assume that the reader is bigoted or judgemental? like it's not a good gotcha.

OTHER THAN THAT i think it's a lovely book!!

[queen-kassiopeia-the-5th]

Now that I've finished all of stormlight (I'm not looking at the WaT previews before the book comes out), here's

My Ranking of all Works in The Stormlight Archives

1. Words of Radiance: My favorite of the series! It has, in my opinion, the best worldbuilding, connecting the dots from the everything that The Way of Kings set out, the character development of every single character is perfectly executed, heartfelt and captivating. The plot continues to escalate and more challenges and threats are revealed, all interwoven in a masterful manner. Could not put this down!

2. The Wat of Kings: An incredible book with so much thought put into it, all these little tidbits that are put in place that you miss at first, and then come out in later books and suddenly everything clicks. The dichotomy and balance between Kaladin, Shallan and Dalinar's POV is so immersive! You want to keep on reading to see the completely different terrain, sights, experiences and worldview from each one of them! Also heavily features the GOAT Jasnah Kholin, the most underutilized character in my opinion. Jasnah is a brilliant, world renowned academic, gorgeous af, one of the first people in this era to bond a Spren, and also an ink Spren, who are less likely to bond. The first time she fell into Shadesmar she figured out what it was and how to get out in 5 seconds max, unphased by the Cryptics trailing her. The first Radiant of the current era to swear the fourth ideal and get a Shardplate. Queen of her nation making reforms to better life for everyone, and not afraid to duel and get her hands dirty (but not her safehand, of course). Casually turns air a into rock and crystals, looking into 2 different realities simultaneously. Goes into full melee and battle. Is a woman Hoid has shown interest in! And yet all we get from her are one prologue, a few paragraphs in Oathbringer and RoW? Criminal! But anyway, awesome book, great characters, immaculate worldbuilding, hit the ground running with this one.

3. Oathbringer: I didn't like some parts of this. The Kholinar and Venli chapters were a bore for me, the shadesmar felt slightly flat at times, but the politicking, the Dalinar flashbacks and the ending really carried it. The ending alone earned the book 5 stars! The Dalinar vs Odium, the battle, Szeth changing sides. Chefs kiss. But still, there were weaker parts in this that overall knock it down a notch.

4. Edgedancer: Underrated novella. It's so fun! Lift is just Awesome, and her and Wyndle are the best comedic duo. It also balances the severity of the End of the World and her perspective, and shows her character grown from caring mostly about her survival, which makes sense, considering her life, and her showing that she does care for others and will go and fight for them, but she will remain Lift, eating pancakes and causing shenanigans. And I loved seeing Nale's worldview and justification, and his Skybreaker gang.

5. Dawnshard: Rysn and Chiri-Chiri are some of my faves. Every time there was an interlude I hoped for Rysn since first meeting her. But overall, the book fell flat – yes, even with Lopen there… Despite the title, we still know almost nothing about the Dawnshards, besides them granting Breath like powers. The sleepless were interesting, but we know too little about them to understand what role they play (I ultimately think they are the Kandra equivalent of Roshar).

6. Rhythm of War: I have a whole post dedicated to my grievances with this book. I didn't enjoy it. At all. It actively made me feel worse. 1400 pages and nothing happens. None of the characters have any development, besides Navani – which, good for her – and maybe Rlain, but she don't see enough from him still. Even Venli gets bullied into compliance by her Spren. Dalinar's arc is litteraly Just Kinda Stend there guy. The plot progressed almost nowhere, despite Urithiru literally getting conquered! One of the weakest Sanderson books overall ever, in my opinion.

[butwhybother]

Speculation about KOWT (Stormlight Archive 5) after reading the sneak preview.

I'll start tagging posts that discuss contents of the prologue of Stormlight Archive 5 with #kowt prologue draft.

IF Gavilar could become a Herald, there are two possible people who could benefit:

One of the Heralds. By finding a replacement, maybe a Herald could get out of the Oathpact.

Odium. By getting Gavilar to go to Braize, Odium can hasten the start of the Desolation instead of just waiting forever for Taln to break. Taln has not broken for thousands of years, and Odium is very tired of waiting; Gavilar will break much, much sooner. (But it seems that death of one of the existing Heralds' death got that started anyway.)

And about the right words that Gavilar needed to speak:

Opposition, sometimes, is needed, the Stormfather said. You will need someone to fight, should you take the position I am offering you.

“Give it to me,” Gavilar said. “Now. I need it.”

The Stormfather turned a shimmering head his direction. That was almost them.

“What, those?” Gavilar said. “Those were almost the words? A demand?”

So close. And so far.

Maybe the words should have been more greedy? Like "What's mine is mine, and mine and mine, and mine, and mine, and mine! Not yours!"

Or more entitled? Like "That's mine and I'm taking it!"

Or if we're looking at other Shardworlds, perhaps "Your Breath to mine!"

[lordgolden]

Tagging Guide

hey everyone! figured i'd do a little tag guide to pin for a bit for my new followers :)

Wheel of Time:

#wheel of time – anything wheel of time books related

#wot on prime – anything related to the wheel of time show

#wot book spoilers – spoilers from the wheel of time books that are not in the show

#amol spoilers – major spoilers from the end of the series

#sarah rereads wot – currently doing my first reread (on the fires of heaven. i am a big liveblogger lol)

#sarah watches wot – tag I'll use when liveblogging the show

I also tag books, characters, and episodes when I can!

Cosmere:

#tlm spoilers / #the lost metal/ #sarah reads mistborn – I'll be using these tags when The Lost Metal comes out next week! I've also been using them for preview chapters (though I JUST caught up lol)

#cosmere – general cosmere stuff

#stormlight archive

#mistborn/ #mistborn era 2

#stormlight spoilers & #mistborn spoilers – usually try to tag MAJOR spoilers for both of these series (but if you haven't read and are planning to read i'd just filter the gen tag)

#row spoilers - rhythm of war spoilers

#kowt speculation – spec & theories on stormlight 5

#Stormlight 5 – general stormlight 5 content

#warbreaker

I also try to do character and book tags for the cosmere!

[koravelliumavast]

Zellionsweep masterdoc needs a disclaimer so I added this. If it doesnt end up being allowed to blaze I’ll be so sad

If you’re seeing this and it’s been tumblr blazed just know that absolutely none of this is real lore about a fictional character. Cosmere tumblr went a little crazy over about 12 hours because of a kickstarter stretch goal reveal of a completely unknown character in a book series where book 5 is coming in 2 years and book 4 ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. Not to mention these are 1000+ page books. Anyway I said I’d blaze it if we got it trending and we did and despite everyone waking up this morning and going wtf was that. That was weird. I don’t what came over us because it was an interesting 3 days with lots of psychoanalysis and discourse about a single characters kickstarter reveal and also two preview chapters being released for the said book releasing in 2024 that made us lose our minds and this was just the icing on the cake. So I collected this lore because of the chaos and confusion and also because I like to collect random lists of stuff on here. Look at it. I have like 5 or 6. I’ve only been in the cosmere fandom since January. The list was long and contradictory and complete and utter bullshit. However I do not hold back on my promises of saying I will blaze it. So here we are. You’re confused by what you just saw and I’m confused why I collected it in the first place. Anyway read the Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson. This won’t help it make any sense but it’s a good read

[libralita]

Why Moash (Probably) WON’T Get a Redemption Arc

Now, a couple of disclaimers: First, I wanted to post this, after I had reread all of the Stormlight Archive books, so I whip out those references. But I also wanted to reread them before the Rhythm of War previews came out. And the Rhythm of War previews are coming out now. So, that didn’t really happen. So, feel free to tell me if I got something wrong. Also there are no spoilers for the previews. I wrote this before reading any of the previews so don’t worry.

Second, as of writing this, Rhythm of War is a few months from being published. There’s 7000+ pages left of this story. So, could Moash get a redemption arc somewhere in there? Sure. Is it entirely possible in even the next book that Moash will clearly be on a path of redemption? Yes and I will be the first to admit that I was wrong. Do I think that any of this is likely based on what Brandon has written from a meta level? No. Here’s why.

Elhokar Kholin

First, let’s talk about Elhokar. It is irrelevant whether you did or did not feel upset when Elhokar died. That is subjective. What I want to look at, is Brandon’s intentions with Elhokar. In Oathbringer, it was clear that Brandon wanted to make Elhokar more sympathetic and that he was growing as a person. Again, whether you felt he was growing as a person, that is subjective but it’s what Brandon’s intentions with the character. And I think his intentions were to make the reader upset when Moash ultimately killed Elhokar. He wanted you to care that Moash killed Elhokar.

I think that if Brandon didn’t want the reader to feel particularly sad if Elhokar died, he would have killed him in Words of Radiance. It was right there. At the end of that book, Elhokar’s last appearance was a joke. I think Brandon is a very good writer so he if he wanted to, he would have done it in a way where he could signify that Elhokar’s death would have consequences but people only sort of cared, both in and out of story.

Here’s a good example of this: Sadeas. Most people were glad that Sadeas was killed at the end of Words of Radiance. However, I think most readers knew that this was going to cause problems for Adolin and the rest of the plot. We and the characters know that Sadeas’s death is going to have consequences but there is a side of us all that says “good riddance he was a pain in the ass”. I’m pretty sure Palona says something to that effect.

So, if Elhokar had been killed in Words of Radiance, it could have easily been signified to the reader that this would have major consequences for Moash. You base it on Kaladin’s reaction. He could be upset with Moash. However, Elhokar had shown very few redeeming qualities in the eyes of the readers and most of the characters, so how much they would care would be limited. Thus it would be easier for everyone to allow Moash a redemption arc. Kind of like Adolin with Sadeas. Adolin is ultimately still a sympathetic character in the eyes of the reader despite murdering someone.

Redemption as a Theme

So I am starting to see this argument that the theme of Stormlight Archive is that anyone can be redeemed. If you can forgive Dalinar, then surely you can forgive Moash. While I do think that redemption is a large part of this story and there is this idea that you have morally flawed heroes. Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Jasnah and Elhokar are all Radiants but they have done a range of immoral things for a variety of reasons. 

However, with this mentality, I can easily go say “well there’s a theme that some people are just too irredemable and must die. For example: Sadeas, Aramam, Lin Davar” and various other characters.”

However, I don’t think anyone can be redeemed. In my eyes and the eyes of the story. It would have been advantageous for Amaram to be redeemed so that we could get information on Gavilar and the Sons of Honor. That did not happen. Sadeas was morally on par with Dalinar and yet he didn’t get a redemption arc. “But Taylor, Amaram and Sadeas aren’t morally equivalent to Moash!”

Yes, that is true. But what about someone like Lin Davar? Lin Davar kills only one person in the story. He allows people to assume that he killed his wife in order to protect his daughter. Now, is he horribly abusive and deserved to be punished? Yes. Absolutely. However, did he deserve to be redeemed? I don’t know.

Word of Brandon

Now, I generally don’t like WoBs as evidence for big plot points. I generally don’t like it when I have a theory and someone tells me that there’s a WoB saying it’s impossible. It’s not fun but that’s a post for a different time. This doesn’t really matter with small plot things. It’s not totally important to the plot that we know that the characters on Roshar age differently than people on Scadrial. (Though I think that is in canon) So, I understand if you want to disregard this point. However, I found this Writing Excuses podcast on Anti-Heroes and Brandon talks about Moash.

5:10 (14:56 if on mobile) Someone: Have we written characters who were not the antagonist and who were with the protagonist, who were part of the protagonist’s team, who we made deliberately unsympathetic?

5:56 (14:07 on mobile) Brandon: I’ve done this with side characters and most often for me it’s a signal that the character is becoming an antagonist. I’ll usually start with “boy you wish this characters had made different decisions” but you still like them moving into “man I don’t actually like this character” into “oh it’s okay for me not to like them, Brandon has made them into a villain.” And there is that uncomfortable moment in the middle. There’s an entire subbreddit dedicated to one of these characters which is just swearing at them.

For those of you who don’t know, this is referring to the Fuck Moash subreddit. This podcast came out around two months after Oathbringer. He doesn’t specifically say Moash in this podcast because Oathbringer is so new and that would be a spoiler.

This is evidence of Brandon’s intentions at this time and at this point Moash is on the road down to be a villain. However, I completely understand not taking too much stock into a WoB. Like I said, I generally treat WoBs with a grain of salt but treat canon very seriously. I also know that Brandon could change his mind down the line.

Conclusion

So, in conclusion, I think Moash won’t get a redemption. Anything can happen but when looking at how Brandon is writing Moash, I think it’s fairly obvious he’s not when looking at the meta. However, I have faith in whatever Brandon decides to do with his character. I remember before Oathbringer came out, everyone was complaining about the love triangle and it was going to be the worst. But I knew from reading his other books that he was going to handle it just fine and he did.

Now...have I been more wrong than right about most of Brandon’s books? I am pretty sure I have been. But that’s okay! Who knows, maybe there will be a third option that no one even know that was possible! Or maybe Moash will be standing over the corpse of someone from Bridge 4 and stans will still scream “Moash did nothing wrong!” We’ll see.