#never loved szeth as much as i do in this moment

[cosmerelists]

My Top 10 Favorite Stormlight Fights...That DON'T Involve Kaladin

I wanted to do an overall “top fights” list but I found that were all, uh, just Kaladin. So Kaladin’s best fights will be saved for a future post, probably, but for now--let’s give some love for those epic fights that DON’T involve our most dramatic hero.

[SPOILERS FOR ALL OF STORMLIGHT ARCHIVES!]

10: Adolin (and Renarin!) vs. the Thunderclast [Oathbringer]

This one makes the Top 10 for me mostly because of how cool it must have been in theory...although tragically we never do actually get to see Renarin fight the Thunderclast. I mean, Adolin's part is still very cool--gotta love the one guy without Radiant powers nevertheless trying to fight a giant stone monster from ages past. And then Renarin comes and defeats it off-screen, and that is cool enough to make this list even though we don't see it.

#9: Moash vs. Leshwi [Oathbringer]

This is such a short fight, and it probably wouldn't make the Top 10 for most people...but I thought it was cool. We have Moash facing off against a Fused--one of the first Fused we ever see--with a Shardblade, only to realize that he can't beat her with that weapon, so he grabs a simple spear instead (my heart!). Then he gets lashed to the sky...but pulls her with him and stabs her in the chest. And so he kills her, and Lewshi being Leshwi, she's like, "Okay. You're legit and I like you." So kind of a cool character-building moment for both of them!

#8: Adolin & Dalinar & Elhokar vs. the Chasmfiend [Way of Kings]

This fight didn't do it for me one a first read, because frankly I didn't care that much about the Dalinar chapters in Book 1 because I was always waiting to get back to Kaladin. But upon a reread and a re-reread, I liked it much more! Like so many early fights in Way of Kings, it felt like a sort of tutorial for how the powers work, here focusing on how Shardblades and Chasmfiends Work. You get to see Adolin & Dalinar work well together despite their conflicts, and you get to see Elhokar being, well, Elhokar.

#7: Adolin’s Duels [Words of Radiance]

Except for the last one, to keep this ranking Kaladin-free! But Adolin's pre-Whitespine-Uncaged duels were also very legit. Adolin is a great swordsman, and that makes him fun to watch (well, read about). And I loved the way that he had a different way to mess with his opponent in every duel, from unhinged battery to slowly picking apart the other guy's armor. It's great to see someone good at dueling get to do what they're best at.

#6: Szeth vs. an entire party [Way of Kings]

I'm referring to when Szeth assassinated King Hanavanar of Jah Keved...while the guy was holding a big dinner party. And while this scene is a little painful to read, since Szeth slaughters everyone while crying, if memory serves, you gotta be a little impressed by the way Szeth is able to kill an entire room of people, many of whom are armed with Shardblades or half-shards. At one point he even tosses his sword away and goes hand-to-hand with people holding deadly weapons and just slaughters them all, no problem. That guy is frightening good at murder.

#5: Navani vs. Raboniel vs. Moash [Rhythm of War]

Some fights are cool because they involve visually stunning moves or epic swordplay. Some are cool because they rip my heart into a million pieces. This is one of the latter! Navani killing Raboniel is gut-wrenchingly tragic but also so cool (the Fused are impossible to kill and yet, Navani does it)...and then Moash shows up. The confrontation between Moash and Navani was an emotional beat I didn't know I needed until it was happening...and listen, I am SUCH a sucker for self-sacrifice. Raboniel grabbing Moash to let Navani escape, even after Navani killed her? I'll never be over it.

#4: Szeth vs. Gavilar [Way of Kings]

I mean, this one is a true classic. It's the first fight we see, and serves as a basic tutorial on how stormlight and Shardblades work. We have Szeth in the opening of Way of King, going to assassinate Gavilar. He lashes people and things left and right. He's on the ceiling and the walls. He's burning souls and cutting holes in the building. He's desperately fighting Gavilar in what is probably Gavilar's only cool scene in all of the books. It's just classic.

#3: Shallan vs. An Entire Army [Oathbringer]

I'm not sure this would make a "Top Fights" list for very many people, but it is one of my personal favorites. This refers to the Battle of Thaylen Field (yes, Kaladin is in the background but that doesn't count as involvement), when Shallan, Veil, & Radiant summon hordes of alters to distract the Odium-crazed army. Not only does she fend off an entire army single-handedly (holy shit, Shallan), but she does so despite the fact that it is her being killed over and over again in thousands of forms. The image of her, Radiant, and Veil holding hands as she struggles to stay conscious is incredibly powerful to me. And Jasnah goes to help! A+ fight.

#2: Adolin & Maya vs. the Tukari [Rhythm of War]

This is one of my all-time favorite fights. It takes place in Shadesmar, when Adolin runs to help Notum who is being stabbed and beaten by a group of Tukari, Not only is it a heroic fight against grossly mismatched odds, which I always love, but it also demonstrates the bond between Maya & Adolin. And when the two of them fight back to back using the kata... *chef's kiss*

#1: Dalinar vs. Odium [Oathbringer]

I'm aware that Kaladin is, like, in the background here, but the actual conflict between Dalinar & Odium does not involve him. And this isn't a physical fight--there's no clashing of Shardblades or running on the ceiling--but damn if this fight doesn't hit hard. Dalinar fights with a book and with his whole soul, and he refuses to give up his pain or to absolve himself of the guilt of what he's done. This might be one of the most powerful moments in any book, so it gets the top spot here!

What are your guys' favorite non-Kaladin fights? Let me know in the comments, if you want!

[kaladinstormblessed09]

Okay, now that I’m more composed I wanna give my actual thoughts on Oathbringer. This is my favourite stormlight book so far, and I’m 700 pages into RoW so please no spoilers for that. Spoilers for Oathbringer down below obviously

Oathbringer focuses a lot more on Dalinar, but I'll get back to him. Bridge 4 gets their own pov chapters. Teft struggling with his addiction, Rock with his family, Skar not being able to take in stormlight, Rlain being alone amongst people who mean well but can never truly understand what he’s going through. I love this crew so much! The side characters shine in this book. Elhokar! I ended up liking him so much in it just for him to be brutally murdered right in front of his son. Moash even kicked the child. I was sobbing, I was so upset. He had so much potential. He was becoming a better king, a knight's Radiant. All for it to be just gone. And kaladin took that failure so personally. My baby. You can't always save everyone, but this is something Kal always struggle with. Moash even had the audacity to salute Kaladin, after murdering Elhokar!

Shallan just gets better and better in every book. I love how much she's improved in lightweaving. She was making her own little movie in Urithiru. I freaking love Veil. She's going around stabbing herself and getting arrows stuck in her head saying it's just a flesh wound. And everyone is rightfully baffled at her. I love her. I really loved her scenes with Wit/Hoid. It seems to me wit has a soft spot for Shallan. I love that Shallan and Adolin are married now! I love love love Adolin. Kaladin is right. You can't not like Adolin. He's got such sunshine golden retriever energy. Also, I love that Kaladin gave Shallan boots as a wedding present. LMAO.

Jasnah is the real mvp! Her just breezing through the final battle soulcasting her enemies was so fucking cool! She’s obviously the one who has the most control over their powers. When she decides not to kill Renarin oh man I cried! In fact I cried through the entire last 150 pages!

When szeth swoops down to save Lift and uses Nightblood to kill that thunderclast? When Lift tries to save szeth from Nightblood?! So many epic fucking scenes!

Dalinar really gets his avenger endgame moment with all the radiants! So so so cool!

And now speaking of Dalinar. So, Dalinar. How do I talk about him. He's probably the best written character I've ever read. He's your classic reformed character. His flashbacks when he was in his prime, being the blackthorn was difficult to read. But it shows you why the other country leaders are scared of him. And it's a legitimate worry. Now that the whole world is at the brink of an apocalypse, and he can save people no one trusts him because of his reputation because he used to be a war monger and a tyrant. and he knows that he can just do it again. He can be the balckthorn again and unite the world forcefully so they'll listen to him. It'll be so easy for him. But he doesn't want to do that. He's not that war monger anymore. And no one believes him. It's such good story telling. But after I read what he did to the rift, and to Evi, I didn't know how to root for him anymore. How do you root for a character who has burned a whole city down killing thousands of innocent people, including his wife. how do you root for someone who killed his own wife?? That's why it was so cathartic when we got to that moment between Dalinar and Odium. Odium telling Dalinar to just give in. Give him all his pain, and that he's the one who influenced him into doing bad things. telling him not to take responsibility. I thought Dalinar was gonna give in. He was gonna become Odium's champion and Kaladin would have to fight him. but for once Kal doesn't save the day. Dalinar doesn't give in. This is the best scene in this book, which is hard to choose cause this book is filled with epic scenes. "The most important step a man can take is not the first one. it's the next one. always the next step. You cannot have my pain. If I pretend I didn't do these things it means I can't have grown to become someone else. I'll take responsibility for what I have done. If I must fall I will rise each time a better man." It's about him taking accountability, acknowledging the wrongs of his past. it's about trying to be a better man. It's about forgiveness and doing better. People complain about the lengths of these books but we needed these pages to get that character development to get to this moment where Dalinar defies Odium. I love this book. this 1200 page behemoth and even than I wanted more. I’ve gone back to this sequence multiple times in the last few days. Even as I read RoW now I go back to reading that sequence. And I cry every single time.

In conclusion, Oathbringer was amazing. I can’t wait to finish RoW. Then I’ll only have the secret projects and TLM left until I’m fully caught up with Cosmere! I can’t wait!

[briar-ffxiv]

10 fandoms, 10 characters, 10 tags

Basic rules: choose 10 fandoms that you are part of/support, and choose a favorite character from each of those. Then, tag ten folks!

Tagged by: @miqojak

This isn't in any particular order and I honestly had to think really hard of fandoms because I don't tend to be a 'loud' fan about the things. I just kind of enjoy taking in the movies/books/whatever and definitely have my favorites.

So long story short, I had to eyeball my Steam, think about my favorite games, and some of my favorite books that are actually fandoms and not stand-alone. Also, because I can't ever pick just one, I did include an honorable mention (or two) in each of the fandoms. And I will try not to gush too much about each character.

Tagging (so you don't have to scroll all the way down): @actualanxiousswampwitch @ainyan @calico-heart @seasaltandcopper @ythealleycat @airis-ray @valdiis @avashnea @starrysnowdrop @lost-harts @mimble-sparklepudding @pinxli

1. Haurchefant Greystone, Final Fantasy 14 - Probably no surprise to anyone who knows me, but I've always had a soft spot for Haurchefant. He was one of the first characters in the game who really felt like a friend to my character in a 'pure' sort of way and who never asked the Warrior to do anything he wouldn't do. He was brave, honest, loyal, and full of heart despite a very difficult childhood and upbringing. And he died protecting someone he cared about. Whether or not he's considered romantic about the person's particular Warrior, he was always their friend and someone who supported them when few would.

Honorable Mentions from FFXVI: Thancred Water, Emet-Selch, Tataru, Estinien, and probably a bunch of others. Lots of good characters!

2. Kaladin Stormblessed, Stormlight Archives - Love or hate Brandon Sanderson, it has to be admitted, that he puts out a lot of books that are interesting and full of diverse characters and worlds. One of my personal favorites is definitely Kaladin from the Stormlight Archives. Kaladin is someone who battles openly with depression and PTSD (like actually acknowledged and mentioned in the story) but is also kind, caring, determined, brave and does his best. He's flawed, moody, and damaged, but also battles to help both himself and others. He is one of the few people who is an advocate for veterans like him to get proper, kind care in the stories as well, which is a rarity in fantasy novels.

Honorable Mentions from the Stormlight Archives: Adolin, Dalanar,, Szeth, and Shallan.

3. Samwise Gamgee, Lord of the Rings - I don't know how anyone can not at least like Samwise. Yes, he's not always the brightest but he's the bravest in my opinion. He's constantly afraid, yes, but he never lets it stop him from doing what he knows in his heart is right. He loves deeply and unconditionally and without him, they would never have succeeded. He takes the worst moment and finds some good, some reason to push past. He's, to me, the kind of person I hope I can be in life. Sam is just a really great character in the movies (the books are not quite the same, but he's still pretty dang good).

Honorable Mentions from Lord of the Rings: Legolas, Aragorn, Eowyn, and others.

4. Reth, Palia - Palia is a fairly new little "cozy" MMO and has its flaws, but the characters are pretty good! So since I've been playing, I'll mention some of my favorites. Reth is a chef who is kind of bad at cooking, but he's funny, sassy, flirty, and charming. He also hides a lot of issues due to the story (that I can't really spill without so many spoilers). The more you get to know him, the deeper he gets and he's actually a really sweet person who values you a lot the more you get to know him.

Honorable Mentions from Palia: Hassian, Jel, Eshe, Ashura, and Delaila and others!

5. Rolan, Baldur's Gate 3 - Look, I know he's barely more than a side character, but I really love Rolan. He's grumpy, he's brash, and he's an absolute jerk...but he deeply loves his siblings, he's very loyal, he's brave, and he has some deep self-worth issues. In short, he is a delight and I love him and I would throw a certain someone off a tower a hundred times for this tiefling.

Honorable Mention from Baldur's Gate 3: Halsin (no surprise), Astarion (look, he's damaged and I love him), Dammon, Karlach, Wyll, and...oh my goodness, so many others. I don't have one SUPER FAVORITE, but I wanted to pick a slightly unusual favorite for my list.

6. Shane, Stardew Valley - Again, no shocker that depressed chicken-man is my favorite. Granted, I think the mods that give him more help him so, so, so much to be a better character, but even at his 'vanilla' version, I find Shane a sympathetic character and one that touched my heart quite a bit. I very much can understand Shane's feelings toward his depression, his life, and how hard things can be. And mods certainly help your story with him to help him become a somewhat healthier person. And I really like that.

Honorable Mention from Stardew Valley: Abigail, Elliot, Marlon, and a bunch of others!

7. Arcade Gannon, Fallout: New Vegas - He's a sassy gay nerd that I'm totally into. He's brilliant, he's witty, he's charming, he's a bit of an ass, but he's also vulnerable, surprisingly deep, and very kind when he can be. So he's definitely one of my favorite New Vegas characters.

Honorable Mentions in Fallout: New Vegas: ED-E, Boone, and Rex!

8. Arthur Morgan, Red Dead Redemption 2 - I understand that the player's choices have a big effect on what kind of character Arthur Morgan is, of course. That said, I found him really well-written, full of depth, and the story overall very moving, especially if you go for high honor.

Honorable Mentions from Red Dead Redemption 2: Dutch, Abigail, John Marston, and others.

9. Zenith, Star Wars: The Old Republic - People think I'm nuts, but I actually love the Jedi Consular storyline. And my favorite companion is Zenith. He's an interesting balance to the Jedi Consular (at least if you play the Light side), and I always enjoyed that he had a strong personality and wasn't easy to budge. He wasn't completely unreasonable in most cases, but I liked that he didn't always let himself be swayed by the player character. He was a deeply damaged, but incredibly loyal and strong-willed person. Also, Troy Baker does amazing voices.

Honorable Mentions from Star Wars: The Old Republic: Theron Shan, Koth Vortena, Lana Beniko, Corso Riggs, and a lot more!

10. Dogmeat, Fallout 4 - So I did two Fallouts. Because I love Dogmeat that much. Dogmeat is the goodest boy and my best friend in the game. Yes, occasionally, Dogmeat blows me up...or ruins something entirely. But he is adorable and precious and my good friend. He makes the wastelands bearable.

Honorable Mentions from Fallout 4: Nick Valentine, Preston Garvery, Piper Write, John Hannock, and more!

If you read all this, thank you for doing so. I tried not to make it too long or include a bunch of spoilers.

[the-vibes-are-off]

The Stormlight Archive Volume 1: The Way of Kings’ Review: Chapter 28 + Interludes 1-4 - 1-6

Hello hello hello, I am back, again, with another edition of ‘This Book Delights in Not Respecting the Structured Chunks I Planned to Write on’ bc naturally there had to be ONE chapter in between the previous part and interludes so they’re getting smushed together. No cool accompanying image this part bc all I have done is sit inside and do nothing so enjoy Twilight and mess (and technically Twilight counts as research for my final year project as I’m doing it on vampires so technically I’m working rn). 

Honestly, I think Brando delights in making me forget that Szeth exists only for him to re-emerge and fill my head with his stupid ass name (see one of the previous parts for my inital anger and outrage). All in all tho, I do love the interludes, they have such a palate cleansing vibes after the end of chapter 28 that help you kind of get over the wtf before moving on to the rest of the story. I will never understand when I hear that people skip or disregard them.

Spoiler Free Zone: 

With being so busy recently, I honestly forgot what happened in chapter 28 bc I read it so long ago now it seems but it does not disappoint skimming over it again. Not necessarily the whole chapter, I honestly didn’t have much tabbed, but the Dalinar character development and tHE END?? besties...

Brando’s book structuring is great. Minus the interludes (which again if any of you out there are skipping these ur so wrong for that), this feels so much like a Victorian three volume novel, which for those unfamiliar (tho it kind of speaks for itself) was a form book release under the serialisation umbrella that was popular at the time (for example the Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, as the two were too short for a traditional three volume release, were released together in the three volume format). Naturally this is my lit student side coming out but I feel like this isn’t done enough and it makes for an interesting structure. Ok, nerd moment over.

The interludes themselves, I mean, always iconic. I love the world building element it brings as even having a multi-perspective narrative, considering how expansive the universe is, is limiting to the possibilities you can explore in this. READ THE INTERLUDES AND APPRECIATE THEM. 

*SPOILERS BELOW (I FIGURED OUT HOW TO DO THE KEEP READING THINGY TY EVERYONE)*

Spoiler Zone:

And now, the epigraph for this part had me like so ready for this chapter. I was like thinking this shit right here just feels like theres something coming. Now initially I was a little disappointed bc I was thinking this just feels like an average chapter like I’m not seeing anything I feel like tabbing am I missing sections???

Then Navani comes in and starts chatting up my home slice Dalinar and I am like I was sensing tension earlier but more in the traditional sense over romantic tension like what is going on. But like this isn’t the climax I know it isnt.

BUT DALINAR ABDICATING ??? I know its bc like everyone is disrespecting my guy and he needs Adolin to fill the role so nothing like shady can happen but I was like floored man. For it to be then followed by interludes? Bro like just shoot me bc I have to read them its who I am.

It was interesting to see different character perspectives and locations etc in the interludes tho it always is. I love how Brando uses his writing at times to portray clear moral messages like in interludes 1-4 with the farmers as a respected population amongst the Shin and how Rysn finds that odd. For that to be followed by Vstim establishing that its not strange and just different and that should be respected was just such a lovely moment to see. 

A little bit obsessed with Axies tbh bc frankly if there were little spirit creatures that appear with what seems to be a wide range of idk what to call them like states of being or occurrences idk stuff and things basically I would be studying that shit too. 

And then, the bane of my existence, the bastard that haunts my nightmares: Szeth :|. Idk WHY his name passionately enrages the very core of my being but it does. Not to mention that I am actually invested in his story bc wtf is this now with some random geezer materialising from the shadows with the head of his former master? OF COURSE I would eat that shit up man. (I do applaud Brando tho for clothing him like a slut but acknowledging how impractical it is and making it an annoyance that was extremely iconic). 

Tab Count:

Cute <3 - 1

Fights - 0

Sad ;-; - 0

Death - 0

Cool - 5

Wtf wow - 0

Wtf Why - 1

Slay Quotes - 1

Love this! - 3

Hate this >:( - 0

Lore - 1

Tab Total:

Cute <3 - 13

Fights - 9

Sad ;-; - 5

Death - 4

Cool - 13

Wtf wow - 3

Wtf Why - 4

Slay Quotes - 15

Love this! - 17

Hate this >:( - 5

Lore - 7

[cosmereplay]

get to know your fellow fanfic writers better ༊ ✧.*

Tagged by @chaos-monkeyy (1000 years ago 😅)

1. when did you post your first ever fanfic?

I started posting in Feb 2021!

2. first character you wrote for:

I think the first chapter of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was from Shallan's POV.

3. main character(s) you’re currently writing for:

Not much has changed: Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin take up a great deal of space in my head and in my fic, including my current WIP Plausible Deniability (Explicit), for which I'm currently procrastinating the last chapter as I do this, lol

4. character(s) you haven’t written about before but plan on writing about soon:

I don't think I've published any Elhokar! I do have a Moash/Elhokar I started in 2021 that I would like to figure out and get out there.

5. fandom(s) you’re currently writing for:

Stormlight Archive, my beloved. My obsession for the last three years!

6. platonic pairing(s) you currently write for:

I did an RP with @wanderingchanneler with Kaladin & Szeth reluctant road trip travellers to friends, and xe's been working on editing and posting it. It's updating weekly - Convergence (Teen)

7. romantic pairing(s) you currently write for:

Mostly Shakadolin, but otherwise it's fairly eclectic. Actually now that I think of it, I write a lot of sexual stuff, and I write a lot about love, but I don't write a ton of explicitly romantic stuff. Except maybe Shakadolin 😂

8. your top 3 tags on AO3 (if you post your works on AO3):

If it's only Additional tags, then it's Oral sex, RoW spoilers, and then a four-way tie of Fluff, post-canon, canon compliant, and PWP. If it includes character tags you'll never guess: Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin, in that order.

9. your current platform where you post your works

AO3, baybee!

10. snippet of the wip you’re currently working on:

Here's Teen-rated excerpt from my draft chapter of Plausible Deniability:

“What do you mean, you don’t feel the same way anymore?” Laran demanded. “We. . . did things together! Didn’t you like it?” “No, no, it’s not that,” Veil said. Storms, how could she describe what had happened to her desire? “I just don’t feel like doing those things anymore. I still want to do other stuff. . . ” Laran crossed her arms, lit from the side by Salas’ violet light. “What, like kissing? Over the clothes stuff? It’s not like you ever wanted to be out with me in public. What’s left?” Veil shrugged. “Okay, we could play Towers at the barracks. Have dinner at your stew–” “Oh, so you can ogle the Highmarshal while I dodge Lyn’s questions about the nature of our relationship? Yeah. Sounds great,” Laran fumed, turning abruptly to look out over the mountains. Veil could tell where this was going. “We could do whatever you want. What do you want to do?” she asked, trying not to sound like she was begging. The tall Windrunner was silent for a while, then let out a long sigh. “I don’t think I want anything else. You know, Veil, some relationships shine like spheres, and others flash like lightning.” She turned to look at Veil. “It was bright while it lasted, but I can hear the thunder now. Goodbye, Veil.”  Without another word, Laran stepped up onto the balcony railing and pushed off, flying at speed into the darkness. “Everstorms!” Veil cursed into the night. She hoped it wouldn’t go this poorly with Ral when she saw her tomorrow.

Tagging @felagund-fiollaigean, @rydiaasuka, @if-one-of-us-falls, @illustraterg, @cosmererambles, @meadowlarkx and anyone else I can't remember at the moment, pretend I tagged you if you'd like to do this!

[aeneaamoretto]

Thanks @serenesavagery for sparking all of this.

She really didn't do anything much other than leaving a passing comment that 'Brandon is a legend btw'.

That made me curious...

(That's never a good thing.)

So, I wanted to know what was his total written word count, what was his longest book and his shortest book...

And because I'm stubborn, I was going to do it myself. So armed with his official website, a calculator, a notepad and the internet, I began my quest.

Three books in, I switched to an Excel sheet because I am an idiot for even considering my first method was a good idea.

Here is where my overly investigative self went slightly off the rails. So not only did I have the book titles and the number of words in each book, I went on to include what category they fell under based on his site, if they were apart of a series, what type of book they were and their earliest publication date. I said earliest because some had two under different companies so I just went with the first one.

I'm here to share my findings after 2 days of research...

I mostly used the list of books from his website. So Arcanum Unbounded and Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds were used over the standalone versions. It saved me time in hunting down the others and calculating the overall word count was much easier if I didn't have to some subtractions along the way.

His four graphic novels were excluded from any of the final calculations because I couldn't get any accurate word lengths for them. For similar reasons, the audio book book he worked on was also excluded. I still put them on the list though.

The only other exclusions I had were his additions to the Unfettered, Unfettered III and Armored anthologies because I couldn't get my hand on those numbers.

I'm honestly surprised that I managed to get the one for Dreamer.

(If any of you do have them, could you please send them my way. Thank you.)

Also, I included the tentative word counts for Dawnshard and Rhythm of War because I wanted to include them in this crazy list...

There's also a fake release date for Dawnshard because I needed something there if I wanted to plot it later.

So feast your eyes on my crazy masterpiece

Yes, I also did a graph because I'm extra.

(Those sharp crazy increases were mainly due to Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, Warbreaker or The Wheel of Time. I checked.)

So the longest book he has ever written is undecided. It'll depend on how long Rhythm of War actually turns out to be but for now it's at number 1.

So his current Top 10 longest books:

Rhythm of War - 460,000 words*

Oathbringer - 454,768 words

Words of Radiance - 403,736 words

The Way of Kings - 383,181 words

A Memory of Light - 353,906 words

Tower of Midnight - 327,052 words

The Gathering Storm - 297,502 words

The Well of Ascension - 249,522 words

Warbreaker - 243,849 words

The Hero of Ages - 241,889 words

Since I don't have all the figures, his Top 10 shortest stories are up to deliberation but I do know that it'll take a lot of work to dethrone Dreamer at number 1.

Brandon Sanderson's Top 10 Shortest Works

Dreamer - 4,365 words

Mitosis - 9,034 words

First Born - 14,051 words

Defending Elysium - 14,743 words

Perfect State - 18,268 words

Snapshot - 25,079 words

Dawnshard - 35,000 words*

Infinity Blade Redemption - 37,681 words

Infinity Blade Awakening - 39,040 words

The Dark Talent - 51,711 words

Bonus: Here are the random calculations I did because I was bored and this is Excel...

(Again, his works from Armored and the Unfettered anthologies were not included in these numbers except for the final tally of works. That number is still inaccurate because I didn't get around to adding the shorter stories that became apart of Arcanum Unbounded and Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds.)

Can we take a moment of awe for this man? In the last 15 years, he has over 50 works credited to his name.

(My list only says 46 and I think like 10 of his other works didn't make the list because they were absorbed into the collections.)

He has published like 17 FREAKING EPICS !!!!!!

These lovely monstrosities are so long and he has released 17 of them.

His average word count for a single book, with the numbers I found, amounts to 149,147 words... I found the average of 39 different works and that still classifies as an epic.

What is he doing with himself? What am I doing with myself?

We need to applaud this man for everything that he was written for us and continues to write for us. He's written about 5.7 million words already and with Stormlight Archive not even halfway done, I'm not even going to be surprised if that number reaches 8.5 million. Especially considering that he has other active series going on and sequels in the works.

So, Brandon is a legend btw.

Next on my list of things that I'm going to research for the hell of it is Szeth's timeline... I really should do that before Brandon decides to alert me on exactly how much more complicated he wants it to be.

[lisasstars]

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

My thoughts: Spoiler free!

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

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

Characters:

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

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

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

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

Honourable mentions:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[st-just]

Semi-coherent thoughts on Oathbringer

So, overall probably the most even of the series so far, I’d say? Not to say I didn’t like it – I really, really loved the finale, and there were plenty of great lines, but my god were there a lot of pages spent on nothing happening (honestly it kind of reminded me of the latter volumes of ASOIF, in that sense) – then again, I suppose that is kind of just the nature of these 1000+ page fantasy epics. There were some setting reveals that really were fascinating, and legitimately a bit surprising. Going to have to take a break from the series until the friend I got Rhythm of War for is done so I can borrow it, though I suppose that’s no huge loss compared to the however many years everyone else had to wait in between them.

So in terms of pacing it’s...bad. Or, well, that’s probably a bit unfair. There’s absolutely plenty of fat to cute, but again I do think that might just come with the territory of committing to like a dozen POVs across a tree’s worth of paper (though there were absolutely like 100+ page stretches where I’m not actually sure the plot meaningfully progressed). That said, honestly the main pacing issue isn’t so much the bloat as, like – okay, Dalinar’s arc was a pretty consistent throughline, but for Kalidan and Shallan it kind of felt like there was one whole story in Urithiru, and then from the mission to Kholinar and the journey through the Cognitive Realm felt like its own separate novel? I mean, not sure if that makes any sense, but it really did kind of feel like there was a whole additional first act of table and stakes setting once they arrived in the city.

Though, to argue in favor of bloat for a moment – I was chatting with  @lifeattomsdiner​ bit back about The City We Became, and they mentioned that the size of the cast meant that you don’t actually really get to know any of the protagonists that well on their own. And I suppose that is the advantage of the 1200-page-per-volume epic cycle – even with characters you only really meet in interludes like Szeth, Vargo and Venli (incidentally three of my favorites), you spend enough pages inside of their head that you do really get to see what makes them tick and learn to love/hate them. Speaking of – props to Sanderson as an author, really – it’s vaguely astounding that he manages to keep track of that many internal monologues and actually make them seem distinct from each other.

Breaking things down by character a bit more – this book really did actually enjoy/get invested in Dalinar way more than either of the previous two, which again I’m told is more or less the expected reaction. Given the amount of tumblr brain poison I’m voluntarily exposed myself to, it’s honestly more than a bit of a nice change to see a character on a redemption arc who is actually unambiguously in need of redemption. Because holy shit, pulled, like, exactly two punches in terms of making the guy as genuinely loathsome as possible before he starts breaking. And, well, obviously he was on a redemption arc, but there was a bit near the end there where I really did think that the book was going to cut to black on an ‘end of Act 2, maximum darkness before dawn’ moment with, like, all the Skybreakers and him kneeling before Odium as the city fell. But I suppose that would be a bit much of a cliffhanger for a series with installments this weighty.

This was pretty clearly Shallan’s ‘getting over my personal bullshit’ book, like WoR was for Kaladin and WoK was for Dalinar, though spicing things up with increasingly severe DID as the book went on did make things more interesting at least. Also, I have no idea if this is actually true, but according to the friend who pestered me into reading these when someone asked Sanderson if he’d intentionally written her as bi he just kind of shrugged and said ‘sure, why not,’ which is fun. It was more than a bit, I don’t know, forced?, to have Wit just wander in from stage left and give her a desperately needed therapy session while she was in the middle of a breakdown and propel her development for most of the rest of the book, but on the other hand she’s pretty easily the main POV I’m most invested in by now, and the live triangle the text repeatedly threatened me with never actually became a thing, so I can’t really complain too much. Honestly super curious about the Ghostbloods and what they want out of her given, well, for a shadowy murderous conspiracy, everything they’ve wanted out of her so far has been pretty much entirely benign. Like, of the three major shadowy murderous conspiracies they’re easily the least problematic for the future of humanity at the moment. She should just commit and join for real imo.

As always, Kaladin’s POV is mostly good because it means we get more Syl, who is the single best character in the entire story I’ve decided. But also, I really quite liked his whole sojourn with the newly freed Parshmen and dawning realization that ‘wait these people are basically entirely right’. Also, the delicious delicious angst of spending however many dozens of pages getting to know them and then the wall guard and then the two groups killing each other in a confused melee while he has a mental breakdown. Easily best moment in the book (but then I’m a miserable person).

Adolin is honestly significantly more entertaining to follow than I really expected, though I’m still not like especially invested in him as a character. His relationship with his tailor was quite charming, though, as was the fact that he cares enough about fashion that he learned to sew. Honestly I was rather expecting/slightly dreading his main arc this book to be, like, inadequacy or insecurity over being almost literally the only member of his family that’s not a Radiant, so it’s kind of a pleasant surprise that he seems to have just accepted that (too well-adjust, I guess?). It is however extremely funny that the fact he just straight-up murdered one of the kingdom’s most important aristocrats and the major antagonist of the first two books seems to have resulted in absolutely zero consequences of any kind for him.

In terms of minor characters, the one I’m most invested in by a pretty substantial margin at this point is Venli, as she’s getting a front row seat to all the most interesting bits of the setting, ‘cultist growing increasingly disillusioned about return of ancient and terrible eldritch god’ is a really entertaining character arc just in principle, and because as of the end of the book she represents the morally objectively correct perspective and political line I’ve decided and will fight people about. Curious what sort of superpowers she’ll get. (Vargo and Szeth are still both great though, too).

The Unmade are really fun as a worldbuilding conceit/excuse for weird fucked up monsters. And it really is kind of funny that at least a third of the God of Evil’s nine generals/children/favoured beasts are, like, at conflicted or ambivalent about the whole ‘exterminate humanity and remake the world as a monument to my glory’ thing.  

Really, on an extremely shallow and entirely aesthetic level, between the evil red crystal/lightning aesthetic, the remote mountain fortress as a stronghold of the heroes in the face of the coming apocalypse, tears into the realm of spirits, the quirky evil minibosses each handling corrupting/conquering a given center of civilization, etc, the whole thing kind of reminded me of Dragon Age Inquisition. Which reminded me of how disappointing the story to that game was, which made me like the book more by comparison, but anyway. Yeah, good book.

[lev-iathan]

RoW Thoughts

I was planning on doing one of these for every part, but then I kind of... got carried away and finished the book. So, here are my thoughts on the whole thing.

(spoilers for the entire Cosmere, just in case)

- Kaladin was wonderful all the way through. I was so worried all the time that he would die. Like, genuinely worried. Especially during the fight with Lezian (that was staged a bit too similarly to the Kelsier vs. Inquisitors fight in Mistborn and we all know how that ended) and when he jumped off the tower (I knew Brando wouldn’t let him die by suicide, but let’s just say I still hummed to the Terrors). And then he does it. He swears the Fourth Ideal and it goes better than anything I could’ve imagined. Now he’s committed to healing and has reconciled with his father and everything. I just love him so much. Though, I am concerned. At the end there, he did glow with some weird yellow light and Syl forgot the words. That doesn’t bode well.

- Teft’s death. Brando destroyed me with that one sentence, and while I don’t really want to talk about it, I have to acknowledge it. Also, Fuck Moash. I didn’t really care that he killed Elhokar, but after what he did to Kaladin and this, it’s gotten personal. I’m not opposed to a redemption arc for him, but right now, I’m not very sympathetic towards him.

- Dabbid was so good! I really like when minor characters get their chance to stand out and he was wonderful! I hope he bonds a spren, he deserves it.

- Rlain becomes a Truthwatcher! I did not see that coming. I thought Bondsmith or Willshaper but not Truthwatcher. He can see the future now, potentially creating another blind spot for Odium. And Sja-anat is creating more corrupted Truthwatchers that will have that ability, which I think will be a massive advantage in the coming battle.

- I was disappointed we got so little of Renarin and Jasnah. Renarin barely had a chapter and Jasnah had two but it wasn’t enough. To be honest, Jasnah and Hoid’s relationship annoyed me but oh well. Not worth complaining about.

- Dalinar has little pagetime too, but it was enough. I’d been waiting for them to confront Ishar since he was first mentioned in OB and boy oh boy did they confront him. Ishar is fucking terrifying. He stole Dalinar’s bond with the Stormfather, he can leech Stormlight out of Radiants, he’s experimenting on spren (that was truly and utterly fucked up). What was that all about??? I also loved that it was Dalinar that accepted Kaladin’s oath, not the Stormfather. Him speaking with that godly lowercase caps seems like a bit of foreshadowing...

- I’m so happy for Shallan. Finally coming to terms with everything and realizing that she’s strong enough to work though the pain. I loved Veil’s “death” scene. I was soooo relieved when it turned out that Pattern wasn’t a traitor and the moment we saw the Cryptic in the marketplace I suspected that Shallan could’ve had a different spren that she killed. Also, worldhoppper Shallan confirmed? Hell yeah! She already has a Seon and I can’t wait for her to get her hands on some Breaths because I think she would enjoy those immensely. But first to find a way to get off-world with Pattern.

- Adolin and Maya were phenomenal. I’m really glad he didn’t become a Radiant because we really have a bit of an oversaturation of those among the main characters, but I love that she awakened for him. When she finally reveals the secret of the Recreance... Chills.

- I liked Navani well enough though I have to admit that I was a bit bummed when she bonded the Sibling because of the aforementioned oversaturation of Radiants, but I guess it was foreshadowed. She’s still got a lot of work to do though, with the fabrials and all. I loved her interactions with Raboniel, them discovering the Rhythm of War and all the different lights. Them just sciencing together and coming to understand each other was just great.

- I appreciate that we got at least a glimpse of Szeth and Nightblood. Next book it going to be great, I can feel it.

- Could have used a bit more Lift. I’m happy that she’s doing well after Moash happened, but I’m still confused about the red chicken...

- And finally, the star of the show, Venli. She was actually much better than I expected. I was afraid she would be pushed to the side since she didn’t have many chapters in part 1 and 2, but she played a really great role. Her flashbacks didn’t hit me as hard as the ones in the other books, maybe because they were split and I was never really interested in Eshonai (though that last flashback hurt a lot), but her present-day plotline was great. I like how it wasn’t easy for her to swear the Ideals and she wasn’t forgiven. She didn’t even forgive herself, but she’s on the path and that’s all that matters. It felt fitting that she only managed to swear the First Ideal at the very end. I like Venli quite a lot. I hope she doesn’t get pushed to the side now that she’s rejoined the listeners. One question though? Does Cultivation accept her oaths? Because she hears a female voice instead of the Stormfather.

- Taravangian. Oh Taravangian. You can’t convince me that anyone predicted he would kill Rayse and Ascend to Odium. That was so out of the blue but it worked so goddamn well I actually screamed. That’s a gamechanger. Taravangian is waaaaaay scarier than Rayse could ever be because he’s smart and he’s a planner and those are always dangerous. And what was it he did at the end, mind wiping Hoid??? Seems like this was all part of Cultivations plan and now they’re in cahoots and I am Afraid.

- This was probably my favorite Sanderlanche??? Maybe, I’ll need to do a reread to say for sure, but just the way everything came together to a massive crescendo was phenomenal. Kaladin fighting Lezian. Navani and Raboniel. The boundaries breaking between singers and humans and the fight now becoming a battle between ideals not a battle between races. The Fused defying Odium. The Tower lighting up at the end. I teared up when Venli finally told Leshwi she is a Radiant and Leshwi asked after her old honorspren. I have to wonder if all Fused used to be Radiants back when the spren bonded singers, and Odium just transformed them into brands analogous to their Orders. Anyway, it was great.

- Thaidakar is actually Kelsier. Confirmed, on page. I yelled ‘I KNEW IT’ so loud my cat ran away from me. That bastard. He did it. He became the ultimate cult leader.

- Who the fuck is El? That’s all I’m going to say because I really have no clue.

- I don’t think it’s possible for the entirety of book 5 be set within 10 days. There’s too much stuff to be done. I think the duel will happen about halfway through the book and then we’ll be dealing with some of the fallout, but it’s waaaaay to early to speculate about that.

[jazzy-kandra]

Found

Zahel is less than thrilled to see Nightblood again. Oathbringer Spoilers; a short sequel to Advice.

Adolin, that fop, had managed to wear a “stylish” gold suit to his traditional Alethi wedding.

A part of that amazed Zahel. There was Shallan, dressed in a traditional Alethi wedding gown. Light blue, likely azure - exactly on hue, actually - and trimmed with gold. Perhaps that had inspired Adolin’s choice, he would want them to be color coordinated, the gold of his suit was the same shade as the girl’s embroidery, amusing that, it was almost like the seamstress held Breath.

That thought was more than a bit discomforting, but it was unlikely she knew him. It wasn’t like that Thaylen woman could be Vivenna, she didn’t have the eyebrows.

She probably just has a Damnation good color sense.

That, however, did not stop Adolin’s suit from looking like it was some kind of gaudy knock off from the Court of the Gods. Then again, Zahel had always considered most highborn Alethi weddings he’d had the misfortune to attend one shade off of garish. After all, that was tradition.

Or perhaps he was just grumpy because the boy had asked him to attend despite that he had told that lad, repeatedly, that he hated weddings. At least he didn’t have to officiate it, he hadn’t had to do that kind of crem in years. As luck would have it, Kadesh had stayed on despite Dalinar’s heresy and had been more than happy to give those two lovebirds a nice official Vorin ceremony even though the man was starting to doubt his own religion.

Good ol’ Dalinar, turning everyone into atheists.

Irony was nearly as good as the wine he now drank from a gauntlet too pretty for an ardent to hold. After the main ceremony had ended, he had retreated to a mat in the back, legs crossed, eyes closed, relaxing. Only Renarin had bothered him in the course of the feast that followed. Luckily, the events were almost done and...

He felt a familiar presence, harsh red on black. No, Zahel thought, the wine he had just sipped tasting far more rancid than it had a moment before, that can’t be...

“Master Ardent,” Zahel let one eye slide open at the speaker’s overly polite tone. Then, stared, his Breath catching in his throat. Szeth of the Skybreakers wore white on the day he approached Zahel, argent, baring an all too familiar sword. “My sword...insists that he wishes to speak with you.”

Zahel backed up against the wall, fear gripping his chest.

“Master Ardent--”

Whatever else he said, Zahel didn’t hear. No, it was blocked by that horrible yet missed voice he had longed to hear for over ten years now...

Vasher?

Hello Nightblood.

“I’ll...let you speak alone.” With a short bow, the Assassin in White proffered Vasher the black blade in its inornate aluminum sheath, gingerly, with awe and respect painted on his features. “Please take care of sword-nimi. He often says he misses you, or, I think it must be you of which he so often speaks.”

Zahel nearly corrected Szeth, but the man left before he could. Nightblood shouldn’t be able to miss him. That was impossible...and yet...

Yet, he wanted to believe it, at least this once. It was foolishness, he knew, but...they were surrounded by swords that could feel and think. This sword was similar, maybe on Roshar, Nightblood could too.

Today, perhaps, he would let himself be a fool.

Your tears are causing me to rust.

You don’t rust. Colors, when was the last time he had wept? He wiped his eyes on the back of his sleeve, smiling slightly despite the sense of foreboding that twisted his stomach into knots now that Nightblood had returned to him. How have you been?

What a thing to ask a sword. 

Lonely, Nightblood replied, much to his surprise he felt a wave of loneliness from the blade, like invisible ink appearing upon an empty page. That one green lady with all the plants was weird...then she gave me to Nale...

The Herald? he asked, alarmed.

Boringest guy I ever met! Never let me slay evil...he was the worst!

I see. He sighed. He didn’t particularly miss this aspect of his far-flung blade. Or he was wise.

You’ll let me kill some evil today, right?

No. Adolin’s getting married, he replied, part of him wishing Szeth had stayed so he could give the blade left, but the man had returned to Dalinar’s side. Returning Nightblood would make a scene, he would just have to hold on to him. Is married.

The  newly wedded couple was dancing now, pretty, and happy, and all so very much in love. The Highprince had even undone her sleeve despite that he should have waited until after the wedding celebration to do so. Considering how those two were acting the week prior to their wedding, they probably had not waited until the celebration for certain other things too, not that he was one to snitch. He might be a bad ardent, but he still had morals.

No killing evil today.

Aw, Nightblood whined in disappointment.

How did you end up here?

Szeth brought me. Vasher waited. Nale said he’d was a good choice for evil slaying, but he barely ever draws me. I did get to kill some of Odium’s minions, though. Vasher, that Shard is the definition of evil!

Vasher snorted. Nightblood wasn’t wrong in this case. You can’t kill him. You’re only one sword.

Can I deliver the final blow?

That isn’t my call. Cultivation probably wanted her vengeance. Vasher didn’t want to get involved in a storming Shardic dispute. He was retired for Damnation’s sake, this wasn’t his fight.

Oh. Well. How about tomorrow? We can slay some evil and kill some Fused...what do you say?

I’ll consider it. He would probably regret this, but... There is plenty of evil to slay.

Good.

[kaladinisbae]

dalinar, 13?

13.  “Of course I remembered!”Thank you for the prompt! Have some fluff and angst!

“Where are we going?” asked Renarin and fiddled with his box as Dalinar led him down a corridor in the upper levels of Urithiru.

The serious mask Dalinar had kept on his face crumbled when he heard how nervous his son sounded. He let a small smile light up his expression as he moved to open a door. “Why don’t you see for yourself?”

“Happy birthday!” came the call from the dozens of people in the room the moment Dalinar stepped aside to let Renarin enter.

“Happy birthday, son”, Dalinar said to a stunned Renarin.

“Y-you remembered”, Renarin whispered, staring in disbelief at the birthday party. All of the Kholins, now including Shallan, as well as Kaladin and as many members of Bridge four as possible where here. Lift were somewhere in the room too, probably “stealing” as much food as possible, as well as Szeth. It still felt strange seeing the latter considering their history.

“Of course I remembered!” said Dalinar and pulled his son into a hug. He didn’t comment on the tears that sprung to the boy’s - no not a boy any longer, but a man - eyes. He let him go a moment later and sent him towards his waiting brother with a light shove. Renarin stumbled a step before hurrying forward.

Dalinar watched with a smile on his face as Renarin got hugged by the members of his family. Navani even gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then Kaladin stepped forward and offered a handshake only to be pulled into a hug by Renarin. Dalinar suppressed a chuckle at how red in the face Kaladin turned.

In the next moment Dalinar sighed wistfully. He really wished Renarin’s surprise at him remembering something as important as a birthday weren’t warranted, but it unfortunately was. Getting his memories back from Cultivation had revealed to him how much he didn’t remember. Important things. Things like his younger son’s birthdays or achievements. He couldn’t even remember his birth! And he had no one to blame but himself for it. For never being there and neglecting his son.

He would never be able to make up for all the wrongs in his past. All he could do was make sure to never repeat them and be there for the people he loved from now on.  

Dalinar forced a smile back to his face as he went to join the others in the celebration of Renarin. Within seconds of being surrounded by their excited energy the smile turned into a more genuine thing and when Lift tried to steal the cake Rock had made right under his nose he burst into laughter with the rest of the room. Though the best thing of it all was to see Renarin’s overjoyed smile.

I’m still accepting prompts so send me a cosmere character (or two) plus a prompt from this list and I’ll write a short drabble of it! I’m also posting all of them on ao3 so they are easier to find.

[basket-of-radiants]

dude I’d love to hear your unabridged thoughts on Szeth and Nale

(Warning that everything I will ever say about Nale is half-joking in manner, I refuse to take these two seriously. DO NOT put too much stock into this post.)

That’s probably impossible, I have more thoughts on them than could fit in a post. Szeth and Nale have such a dumb relationship, I swear to god. Honestly anything goes with them.

Nale shows Szeth so much fucking favoritism, it’s ridiculous. He’s apparently been following Szeth around, then he personally intervenes to save his life, then showers him with praise, then gives Szeth this weapon of unimaginable power, and then he takes Szeth everywhere with him and pulls him aside for exclusive field trips in hopes to trigger some key character development or something. There are tons of times he gives him special treatment, my personal favorite being right after Szeth says he joined Dalinar instead of Odium, Nale going “okay that’s cool, it means we’ll probably fight to the death or something though. Anyway, gotta run but I’ll be back to visit you later to personally train you in your new surges of super-ultimate-destruction pretty soon, okay?”

Nale is just so invested in Szeth! Like, mood, I can relate to that, but also you’d think that a herald like him would have a slightly broader scope. I appreciate these lessons he keeps giving Szeth in hopes that Szeth will make better life choices than him but also, does he just not care if the other skybreakers learn this stuff or not?

And Szeth of course respects Nale in a more deific way and takes it on faith that everything from him has some deeper higher purpose. Whatever Nale does, there’s some lesson to be learned.

So this could be some cute relationship of master and pupil or something. Except they don’t actually agree on like, anything. And they make sure the other knows it too. Both of them are really shitty at logic and arguing, so Nale resorts to just condescending on Szeth, and Szeth resorts to sass, which I did not even know was in his skillset before Oathbringer. While I don’t think either of them consciously thinks of the other in this way, as a reader I would say Szeth and Nale are friends. Nale trusts Szeth, he confides in Szeth, he spends time with Szeth, and Szeth is more than happy to be there for him. But at the same time, you would have trouble convincing me they like each other even a little bit aside from their mutual respect.

Like can I talk about their scene in Edgedancer? That one where Nale’s talking to his other squires and Szeth interrupts him and they have a “you’re wrong” “no I’m not” “yes you are” argument (with that exact amount of sophistication too) in front of everyone. If I recall, Nale ended it by making a personal attack and then just ignoring Szeth for the rest of the scene, and then later Szeth proceeded to just ignore everything the skybreakers were doing in the city anyway to an extent where he was actively hindering Nale’s plans. Makes you wonder why Nale kept him around in the first place. 

Thinking about it, the entire time between Words of Radiance and Oathbringer, Nale was probably just dragging Szeth along with him on all his trips around Roshar while Szeth more or less sat there doing literally nothing. I sort of feel like Nale was hoping to take Szeth under his wing and build him up or something, but Szeth immediately decided he liked Nightblood more and just started tuning him out. Okay, maybe Szeth listens to Nale, but he never actually takes any of it to heart unless the topic is Nale’s own shortcomings and specifically how he should be different from him.

Maybe Szeth respects Nale so much that he just projects shit onto what Nale says and does and views it as some “deeper meaning” that Nale is trying to teach him. Although I guess with Nale you kind of have to. Half the time he’s going “anyway I failed and you shouldn’t emulate me and there are other ways to do things but it’s YOUR CHOICE I’M JUST LETTING YOU KNOW ABOUT THE OPTIONS” and the other half of the time he’s going “while the outcomes of the things I’ve done have been really shitty, I regret none of my actions, they were all done in the name of justice, I can’t possibly see how my thinking or my shitty order of radiants could be flawed, but somehow here we are.”

Szeth is pretty much down for whatever, so bless his patience with this jerk. I do think he likes Nale, as much as he likes anyone. They’re both just kind of shitty people to be around though? They don’t treat other people well, but also neither of them care how others treat them. So it sort of balances out. Like, to anyone other than one another, they’re both just pretentious assholes, but with one another it’s fine.

I think it’s cute how much faith Nale has in Szeth though. If anyone can save his trainwreck of a radiant order (which I doubt because skybreakers suck), it’s this guy, you know?

I can talk more if you want, but this is running pretty long, so I’ll stop. For the honorable mentions section, I like to think about how convenient Nale’s timing has been for Szeth, every time something big was about to happen with him. Szeth dying is the obvious one, but he also made a dramatic entrance to the entire skybreaker group just to shout “I object” when Szeth was about to swear his oaths. I like to think that he’s just hiding with some special herald powers, watching Szeth and waiting for the right moments for days at a time or something, even though he could also just walk up and talk to him. He’s artificially adding stakes to Szeth’s character arc. Love it.

[mxlxdroit]

i finished oathbringer!

yay! *confetti*

i can now unblock the oathbringer tag! woohoo!

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

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

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

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

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

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

smaller-stuff-wise, uhhhhhhhh

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

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

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

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

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

-Lopen flipping the Stormfather off... perfect

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-DALINAR IS LEARNING TO READ! FINALLY

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

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

-Evi. Evi. Evi.

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

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

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

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

[nightblink]

Blink Reads Oathbringer - Chapter 120

Only one chapter, because this was the kind of doozy that got a play-by-play and ended up being long enough to stand on its own.

Chapter One-Hundred-and-Twenty – The Spear That Would Not Break

Ooooo, yesss, 'Rough map of the Battle of Thaylen Field', good. I love having city maps like this to help us visualize.

Kaladin's even believing that he failed the windspren, now, the ones that gathered when he was close to speaking the Fourth Ideal. Oh Kal. For some reason I don't think you 'being down on yourself' is the reason you couldn't swear. You knew that you wouldn't mean it. You weren't ready for it, and that's all right. You can't- you can't push recovery, or coping, or ability to deal with an issue, not like that.

Kaladin vs Amaram – a fated face-off- oh shit Amaram just downed the smokestone. WELL THEN. One bonded Radiant versus one… human just about to- “bond”? host? an Unmade

---

Haaaaah, and there Adolin goes again, self-deprecating about the ill-fitting jacket he'd patched together to lighten Shallan's worries and appear steady despite how unstable he is on the inside. Oh man, but that 'Go. Save the city. Be Radiant, Shallan.” [CLUTCHES HEART] L o rd, but you can just hear the love and admiration that he's pouring into those words, each one of them honest to the core (except, of course, the “I'll be fine.” But that's on a different level entirely.)

There's another scene that I'd gladly pay to see done in good animation – Shallan raising an army of illusions, each glowing like a Radiant, and Pattern's fractals running ever-so-subtly over the shape of him-as-a-Blade.

'The illusory Adolin glowed with Stormlight and floated a few inches off the ground. She'd made him a Windrunner.' 'I… I can't take that.' [claps hands] Hello. Again. Self-worth. Issues. And this time combining his feelings of inadequacy with his memory of her looking at Kaladin – Windrunner, standing tall and heroic, windspren sweeping around him like sparkling starlight – when he breathed out slow and it felt like his hopes started to seep out along with that breath.

No scream from his sword – but he thanks her. Maybe, over in Shadesmar, she can even hear him. Maybe.

---

AIGHT TEAM AWESOMENESS TIME (lets use awesomeness rather than Friction for things like that because lbr it just kind of sounds Wrong otherwise)

Hearing Szeth refer to Dalinar as master just makes me shiver, it feels… not quite wrong, as he chose this person to follow, trusting their judgment, but it definitely feels weird

Nightblood, you definitely eat people. It's not the same method as humans eating thing, but it's the same sort of principle.

Szeth really, really needs some quiet, no-death time, but with people around. A place where he's at least accepted to be. And despite Nightblood being… Nightblood, the sword is good for him. Companionship. I can't wait to see what his bonded highspren has to say about that, though.

---

Right, so. Amaram can just fuck off already. As if he wasn't bad enough already, now he has the sheer gall to tell Kaladin to thank him? “I created you, spearman. I forged you.” Oh get down off your high horse for once in your goddamn life, Amaram. The world does not revolve around you! You are not the lynchpin on which the turning of time rests!

Look at this goddamn weeb with his dual-wielded Shardblades. Fuck up his day, Kal. Fuck up his life.

'One taken in bloodshed, at the cost of Kaladin's crew. The other, Oathbringer. A sword given to ransom Bridge Four.' And wielded by Amaram, who put Kaladin's brother on the front line and took Kaladin's freedom. Branderson's not even trying to hide the symbology here, he's outright stating it. (Kal you are such a Hufflepuff, istg, and I love it)

Yikes, and there starts the transformation. Amaram's probably going to look distorted and sprouting crystals by the time this fight ends.

---

“Hello, old friend.” GODDAMN, I DIE. Dalinar you'd better come out of this alive.

---

Yet another scene that I'd like to see justice done to via animation is this one of Shallan, light swirling around her and expanding from her feet as everyone she's ever drawn comes to life-through-light around her.

[winces] Of course her parents would trigger old trauma and start causing her to falter and retreat. But… her alternate personalities. As unhealthy as her coping mechanisms may be, these two do usually lend her a reprieve (not strength, no matter what she thinks – that is hers and hers alone, as the Real Person) when she needs to lean on them.

---

Adolin: [casually collects a squad of Thaylen soldiers]; Jasnah: [does not need any help whatsoever]; Adolin: ...okay then, next-

Once again we have mention of those “geometric shapes” that we saw with Dalinar when he jumped down the chasm to tap Venli out of the vision, and I still wonder if that's proto-Shardplate or not, especially since Dalinar was unhurt as he dug his fingers into stone to slow his descent and now Jasnah casually tosses a man through the air, nbd

[insert lots of quiet shrieking that will be followed up on in my Adolin Notes post] tldr: Horrors of war (he's gonna have nightmares about this) and so, so many self-worth issues.

Aww yisss, heirs teaming up to go get Navani and Fen out of being cornered, good, because I need both Navani and Fen to survive this battle and their strengths aren't in battle prowess

---

Hmmm, so is the Perpendicularity going to fade over time since Honor is still shattered? That's kind of the feel that I'm getting from what Ivory is saying here.

Jasnah can just wave her hand and a squad of soldiers is Soulcasted into smoke with hardly any effort. Oooof. Yeaaaah, I imagine even Jasnah, who did such in Kharbranth with no regrets, would feel rather horrified at the ease with which she just dispatched those men.

Ah, the Perpendicularity has closed – good to know. 'He had been the storm, and had somehow recharged the spheres – but like a storm, his effects were passing.' That tells us a little more about Dalinar's current state as well – because despite the Stormfather having a large fragment of Honor's power now, they are still 'just' a Bondsmith-pair (though I'm still thrown by and dancing around the whole I am Unity thing, because. goddamn.)

Ooooo, with the worlds this close and Soulcasting as easy as it is- you're gonna pull what we see on the cover and close the wall gap, aren't you, Jasnah?

---

Now Szeth and Lift are getting close to the Singers who aren't Fused – many of whom never wanted to fight in the first place. And you two know if your quarry headed this way or not?

It's an interesting split in the Skybreaker reasoning here – Nale sits out the battle, bowing to the Parshendi as the true keepers/rulers of the land, but Szeth maintains that since this 'law' is the 'product of the many', and his own experiences show how flawed that can be, that he cannot follow it. I'm… still very confused and torn over Skybreakers.

OOOP THERE'S THE ONE WITH THE RUBY they did know where they were going to find her

Okay Sanderson but now that you've put the thought in our heads, we need at least one chapter in a future book where Lift is sitting around with Nightblood and teaching it the filthiest, filthiest language she possibly can in all the languages she knows.

Once again, the greater power of the Radiants' Surgebindings prove to be a deciding factor over the Fused's Voidbindings – and Szeth has experience in the air. Which he's going to need, since now that he has that ruby he's got a target painted on the back of his head.

---

I'm thankful that it's Adolin who told Navani about Elhokar's death. Kaladin… Kaladin saw it happen, and he would have catapulted right back into the moment and into the self-blame and overwhelming grief if he'd had to be the one to tell Navani that her son – one of the people he'd sworn to protect – was dead on his watch. Adolin, on the other hand – they're family, and while Adolin doesn't blame himself to the level that Kaladin does, ever since Kholinar he's been in Grieve later mode. He hasn't given himself the time and slackening of self-shouldered responsibility to process the feelings over Elhokar's death, though he's been mulling over the consequences of what it means logically for the entirety of the Shadesmar journey.

I can't even imagine how this must be for Navani – the second time she's mourned the death of a child. Even if the first time, Jasnah eventually returned, that doesn't change the fact that Navani had to mourn both her children.

As soon as his shared moment of grief with his aunt is over, Adolin is assessing the situation and formulating strategy, taking charge without breaking stride and giving orders to the Thaylens – interrupted by Jasnah being goddamn amazing (hah, she DID Soulcast the wall whole again, and how) – and then changing strategies on the fly due to the new fortification. He's so very far from useless, and yet, this seems to do nothing to alleviate that insecurity.

...Adolin, you're damned good with a Shardblade, but that's a thunderclast. Y'know, the twin of the thing that crushed Lift's lower body earlier? You don't have Radiant healing powers! If that thing so much as clips you you're fucking toast. I know you probably want to help your brother, (you want to be useful,) but without Plate or stormlight healing, that's... very close to a deathwish.

---

Oooop, yeah, Amaram is going all crystalline on us. It's not having any apparent detriment on his physicality so far, though with him wearing Plate that could just be hard to tell. Gotta give him one thing, though: Amaram is really good with the Blade, and doubly so with that dual-wielding stance. It wasn't going to be easy for Kaladin in the first place, and now he's bonding with an Unmade.

Oh yeah and don't forget your job – whatever Dalinar's doing, he needs to focus on it and not get killed. That'd be great.

I can't remember – has Kaladin ever felt the Thrill that we've known of? I can't remember it happening even in an offhand reference as opposed to on-page.

When did Amaram get a Shardbow?! Is that Sadeas' old bow that he's shooting at Kaladin with? I… well, that's appropriate, but I'd rather not see Kaladin hit with a spear-sized arrow.

I wonder just how much the swallowed gem + Unmade bonding is going to change Amaram. Bonding with a spren doesn't change the Radiants so physically (yet), but we see here that Amaram's sprouting more crystals from his body – crystals that are piercing through his Plate from the inside out! - and considering what voidspren do to the Listeners/Singers, I wouldn't be surprised if Yelig-nar evicts his soul once it's done changing his form.

Okay, Plate or not, grabbing a Shard-lance is a ballsy move.

---

'Dalinar walked through the mist, and each step was a battle he relived.' After all this trauma relived, the only way you're going to sleep this night if you survive is by passing out from sheer exhaustion.

It's interesting to know that the Thrill isn't a drive to kill, per se, but just to fight – it simply takes that to the extreme end, keep on fighting even when you've won, keep on fighting until there's nothing left, even then keep on fighting there is only the fight

---

'Jasnah existed halfway in the Cognitive Realm.' As great as that must be for her to Soulcast powerfully and on the fly, it… probably isn't good, technically speaking. The 'normal' people who use Soulcasters seems to end up like this over time, and even if the physical effect wouldn't apply to a Radiant in the same way, it's probably still not safe, or even a good idea.

Still. Jasnah can just reach forth and command air to become stone. That is awesome.

'“Bad?” she asked Ivory. “It is,” he said from her collar.”' Uh oh. And saying that about Shallan going through the amount of stormlight that she has… we know that there are effects/repercussions to simply holding stormlight (increased impetuousness, a drive to act) do we know if there are any downsides to using too much stormlight? A sort of burnout, perhaps?

Just. Casually soulcasts a wall of pitch in the air and then sets the Fused that come through it on fire to bun and writhe and die horribly. No big deal. And then slices through the next with the Ivoryblade. Simple. Elegant. Effortless. Very terrifying.

Ah- that's fair, and not the 'bad thing' that I'd originally considered: Shallan's burning through enough stormlight that there won't be enough left for anyone else to do anything (as opposed to somehow having a negative effect on herself). Damn, I didn't realize that she was going though that much stormlight, if she's nearly cleared all the field of spheres around them of energy!

Fingers crossed that Jasnah can help Shallan, and that neither Renarin nor Adolin dies fighting the thunderclast.

---

Dun ruby? Did he or one of the other Radiants breathe all of the light from the King's Drop? I'd thought it was still infused!

'I think they would have flown like you instead of falling down, if they'd really wanted to be saved.' That. That's not how it works, Nightblood. Also you can't exactly be a 'noble sacrifice' when you're you. And on that train of thought – what would it take to destroy such an Invested, sentient object like Nightblood?

'He did not win by dying.' And you actually do understand that, in more ways than just related to the immediate battle at hand – you've faced death, more or less experienced it, and have seen and decided for yourself that it is not the answer that you'd once wished for.

I continue to love this trio's dynamic. Lift and Nightblood are far too quickly becoming friends for Vasher's future sanity, though.

What is 'deevy'. Is that Nalthian or something that Lift actually recognises, I can't tell

Yessss, time for Lift to show off those skills – not the Radiant ones, but those that she honed by stealing people's dinners.

---

'She'd made thousands of illusions. Each one… each one was her. A portion of her mind. A portion of her soul. … Each one of her illusions that died hit her with a little shock. A sliver of her dying.' Aaaaand you're another one that's not going to be sleeping tonight unless you just collapse into unconsciousness. The soldiers have at least had some experience with this sort of battle, but you… this is really your first battlefield of this kind, and you're not only fighting it all on your own, but in a very strange but intimate way, with parts of your very soul.

She's gotten a lot better at her illusions, though, perhaps partly though the sheer power that she's able to access to power these, but that combination of Lightweaving+Soulcasting backed by all that light feels a lot like Kaladin's airbending of the highstorm even as he drew light from it back during Part 1. I'd bet a handful of spheres that what she's doing here is one of the Lightweaver-unique Surge manifestations.

Veil and Radiant are supports, anchors for her mind, but Shallan is the one doing this, not hiding behind a false mask to do so.

Oh? What do you need Shallan's help for, Lift?

---

AMARAM. CAN. SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP.

[winces] A sword may be better for breaking Plate than a spear, but the problem is that you're much better with a spear than a sword, and there's a fair chance that Amaram might be better facing off against a sword, assuming that he's trained Blade-against-Blade. And I think you realize those problems too.

WHOA WAIT WHAT AMARAM'S PLATE IS SHATTERING- 'Beneath, his ripped sock revealed a foot overgrown with carapace and deep violet crystals.' Um. Well then. Carapace and crystal. He's growing his own armor, isn't he?

Oh shit and he has access to surges now. That first one looks like the Stoneward's use of Tension that we saw in Dalinar's initial flashback to Aharietiam in this book, but that second looks more like Friction! Unless it's a use of Cohesion or combined Cohesion-Tension that acts like Friction? It's possible that while the Voidbindings are analogous to the Surgebindings, the combination that a Fused may have is different from the Radiant combinations. And while he's not… technically a Fused? Ish? Sort of? (What do we call this sort of bond.) he's obviously obtained access to at least one if to two or even more Voidbindings or Surges.

And now it's two against one, and Kaladin still has to keep an eye on Dalinar to make sure that nothing's going after him. Greeeeaaaaaat. This is not going to turn out well.

---

Speaking of not turning out well, Adolin I know you want to be of use and help your brother but, uhhhhh you do know that that thunderclast only needs to get one hit on you without your Plate and you're smushed, right?

And you're alone, even better. Renarin was caught in the crowds, I believe I saw? Um. This is. Just about suicide and I think you know that and that's. Mmmmmmmmm- (Of all the things I wish these brothers never had to share...). It’s going to be half-miracle and half breaking the limits of his goddamn skill if he’s going to survive this for any length of time. Seeing a soldier get squished right in front of you isn't inspiring any confidence

………………

'“You want to fight it, don't you? It reminds you of when you were alive.” Something tickled his mind, very faint, like a sigh. A single word: Mayalaran. A… name?' Right, hearing a spren's voice – not out loud, but in your head, from a spren that shouldn't be able to do anything but scream.

….if that's not a proto-Bond of some kind then I will eat a goddamn mushroom. He hasn’t said any Words, but he’s definitely cracked enough for a bond. Even so, though, WoB is that it’s very, very difficult, nigh-impossible but not entirely so to revive one of the dead-by-broken-Oaths spren. If he’s even edging towards managing that... there’s no way that it’s going to come without consequences. With spren and human both broken - that wouldn’t be a normal Radiant Nahel bond; even if they manage a Bond there’s going to be something different about it. (....hah, another thing that the brothers would share, what is it with the Kholins and strange bonds?)

Oh, great, so even if you dodge, the sheer force of the thunderclast hitting the ground in an attempt to smash you can knock you off your feet. Fantastic.

!!! Somehow, in all of that noise and the roar of adrenaline, you manage to hear a child's whimper and dash back to save them, then proceed to parkour through the collapsing buildings as it strikes at you and then reverse back with speed to blitz its legs. I mean I still want Renarin to get here asap because you can't last forever, but I'm at least not as worried for your life as I was before, considering this display.

….yoink?

---

'It returned every memory he hated about himself. War and conflict. Times when he'd shouted Evi into submission. Anger that had driven him to the brink of madness. His shame.' Everyone is going to need a good, long series of therapy sessions after this is over, but you most of all. Oh Heralds, you most of all.

The thrill reacts to his thanks like a favoured axehound to its master's praise, reveling in his acceptance. It loves him, in its own strange, twisted way.

---

Venli! Back to you, finally – you weren't pushed back with Odium and the others when Dalinar opened Honor's Perpendicularity, and I am curious.

Rhythms are overlapping, drowning each other out, and yet, amidst all that chaos, she can pick out one of the old Rhythms, a Rhythm of her people, not of Odium, and the way that she can feel Timbre, like a magnified version of Maya's whisper not two pages before-

...I was wondering if it were possible for Parshendi to become Radiants. I thought I read somewhere that there'd never been a Parshendi Radiant before. Hah. While Dalinar might technically have been holding his hand out to Amaram, the message came across to someone else entirely. 'You can change. You can become a better person.'

You have Words.

'I choose!' Oh man, that gives me shivers. Not as much as 'you cannot have my pain', but damn that sent a jolt down my spine.

Okay, it's really silly, but I'm cackling myself out of my chair at the thought/sight of Venli hunching over, shoulders curling, practically talking to her chest.

'Journey before destination.'

[EXCITED SHIVERS]

(I do wonder, though, especially considering what we've seen of this Avalanche, if all of this generation of Radiants is something new, different from before.)

---

I am very amused but not at all surprised that Adolin can recognise sets of Shards on sight, even though he likely hasn't seen them in person before.

2v1 is better than nothing when you're facing a thunderclast (especially when this guy can take hits and you can't) but I still want Renarin there asap (WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE US BACK-TO-BACK KHOLIN BROTHERS, SANDERSON)

oh yes and then of course it ignores the bait and goes straight for Adolin. Fantastic, it holds grudges.

….did. did you just throw an over-six-foot-long Shardblade like it was a knife. And that's a move you somehow practiced.

his ability to read/react in battle situations is (tbqh) disgustingly good but that 'judging the shadow of the thunderclast's hand and dodging so it landed with him between the fingers'? What the actual fuck is your reaction time

...not good enough, apparently. Ouch. Even a glancing blow is enough to badly injure. (Broken rib, injured arm and injured leg (unknown severity), possible further internal injury)

Seven heartbeats. Panic conveyed to his mind as a warning, unprompted.

So. Uh. That's a thing.

Except then Thunderclast. He is so fucking lucky that that stomp didn't hit him or he'd be paste.

[winces] Between the previous injury from the sideswipe, the drop, and now the fall, his leg is busted. He can't run. He can barely even stand. But there's Maya again, reaching for him (there are no heartbeat counts no indication of summoning since the rooftop collapse and I wonder if that's significant or not) and-

Oh thank fuck Renarin is finally here

HAH THAT'S RIGHT YOU'D BETTER STEP BACK IN FEAR. A Shardbearer is one thing, but a Radiant? Whatever spren is animating the thunderclast, it recognises that glow of stormlight, and know that its death is nearing.

“I can handle it, Adolin. Just go! Please.” AHHHH, RENARIN GETTING TO BE THE ONE TO PROTECT HIS BROTHER THIS TIME I LOVE- (I still want back-to-back brothers sometime but this is awesome so I'll forgive BrandoSando for now)

………...Adolin is going to have nightmares about the thunderclast smashing Renarin for the rest of his life. That said, Jesus fuck what a fucking TANK- looks like Regrowth use in battle isn't just for healing others, but will accelerate the stormlight healing to the point of well I just got flattened by a boulder but that's okay I'm good

Seriously, though, Truthwatchers and Edgedancers must be just goddamn unkillable

Handing the Mayablade over is not something I'd expected, but better that Renarin have someone at his side that's uninjured and won't have to dodge every single blow and can instead focus more on the attack.

---

'Szeth of the Skybreakers had, fortunately, trained with all ten Surges.' Which means that you've already practiced with Division even though you're not trained with the power that you'll use as an actual Sybreaker, and you know what the other Surges look like and what to expect from them, which is more than any of the other Radiants here have.

Szeth on ice skates is something I need to see art of now

PFFFFFT okay I know that technically a Radiant doesn't have to transfer the stormlight with their hands, but for Szeth to do so with his face just sends me cackling

YOU GOT THE RUBY GO GO GO

Ahhhh, that's what you needed Shallan for. Good job on the switch; they definitely believed it, and now you have time

[winces] Yeaaaah – even if the Thrill never had a hold on Szeth, it'll take the memories of the fighting and the killing and break him all the more, and he does not have the stability to come out of that all right.

But what of Lift? How will the Thrill affect her?

---

Um. Well. Looks like that transformation that Amaram's experiencing is not a painless one.

Unless we see another Surge use from him (which would mean more than two Surges), I think this confirms that Yelig-nar confers the Surges of Tension and Division(?), given that he's burning stone like we heard that the Dustbringers could do from the TWoK prologue and saw Malata do to Taravangian's table.

Ouch. This fight is really showing just how bad it can be for a Windrunner(/Skybreaker) to lighten themselves when their opponents are coming in with blows hard enough to fling them across the battlefield. Also he is once again getting dangerously low on stormlight, and unless he wants a successor-scene to the aerial chase he had in Shadesmar that ended with him plummeting, he'd better be very judicious and efficient in his stormlight use.

Um. Okay so- “Syl. Syl, that was a Lashing.” - confirmed that the Unmade can confer Surges beyond the strict two-Surge-limit on their host. That. That is terrifying.

Gotta agree with Kaladin that's it's not entirely Amaram that he's speaking with right then. While Amaram may still be present, he's been twisted even further – first by the Thrill and then by Yelig-nar – to a point beyond what probably even Meridas Amaram alone would have gone, despite being an utter shitsack of a man.

Then again, I could be wrong. The revelation of the Heralds 'betrayal' could very well have been a no-turning-back point for him, going over to Odium instead out of anger and hurt and spite when he found out that the Heralds he so trusted and believed in were revealed to be already on Roshar, and not as holy as he'd thought.

“After I was forced to kill your squad, I… hurt.” 'After I was forced-'? Oh, you despicable, putrid barf-stain of a human being, I hope one of those amethysts is stabbing you in the balls right now, because what the hell is that passive acceptance. Nobody forced you to murder men for a Blade. This is definitely your fault and you have zero remorse and I am going to cheer when you finally get your face stabbed like you deserve.

Igniting the air?! Oh fuuuuuuck, that's new- note, Division doesn't require solids or liquids it can just. Pull a full Colonel Mustang and ignite the air. Greeeeaaaaaat.

“Then why do you still hurt?” Oooo, that struck deeper than any of his physical hits have thus far, and it's making him angry and unstable – both of which could make him reckless and sloppy.

!!!!! UM. That's. Well then. That's a pretty sickening transformation. Here I thought he'd end up with more of a crystal carapace, but no, this is…. He's a hollowed geode curled around that dark light.

Oooop, yeaaah, and there he goes into the air – Kaladin's domain indeed. Especially with Kaladin so close (yet so far) from the Fourth Ideal, and with far, far more practice in the air, Amaram can't hope to match him.

Daaaaamn, but what an epic sight, Kaladin floating down like a wind spirit himself, the storm still raging in the background, hovering above Amaram as the light of Hatred flickers and fails - “All the war did was identify the spear that would not break.” How very Stoneward of you in that moment, Kal, especially with that parallel between ten spears and ten Heralds.

Aw, shit. Looks like the Fused got smart and brought backup, and now there's barely any Light left for you to fly/heal/Lash with. This is not good.

---

RENARIIIN – HELL YEAH MAN, YOU DID IT

Very good fighting indeed, especially when you're not used to battle – though the technicalities of battle with humanoid enemies is one thing, and going up against a thunderclast is entirely another, you still made it through the adrenaline and the nerves and the fear and you pushed through.

I think it already fears him, Glys; it feared him from the first time it saw him. Also Glys is really excitable and it's adorable.

Huh. So – a 'beacon' of stormlight, and that… did it force the voidspren to flee the thunderclast body and return to the Everstorm, then? I can't imagine that it was a powerful enough light to purge the voidspren into nonexistence, but this scene is a little sketchy on the detail of what the power is/is doing. WE NEED MORE DETAILS, SANDERSON.

Is this an echo of your worries from earlier, back in the temple, Renarin? Or do you mean you saw yourself die in battle – do Truthwatchers have some sort of psuedo-Atium-like ability?

---

...Shallan is Not in a mentally stable right now. Hopefully Jasnah gets there soon because this whole flowing identities thing in the midst of the effort of keeping her illusory army up, that army dying, and the energy drain of the slowly decreasing stormlight is very worrying.

YES thank the heralds there's Jasnah- ooooh, shit, but two of the three Shallans are illusions and the 'Shallan' one isn't her – this is, mmmmmmm… every new paragraph comes with a new name, Radiant to Shallan to Veil and around and around, the personalities not so much bleeding over into one another as flickering, each step accompanied by a different face. This does not bode well. It seemed like she was healing a little in Shadesmar, but this is as bad as if not worse than she's ever been, Veil and Radiant pulled into prominence by the stress.

For all that Jasnah hates teaching, she certainly doesn't hesitate to infodump on Shallan when the opportunity presents itself, even if that opportunity is when they're still in the middle of a battle! This is giving us-the-readers a lot of information on Soulcasting, as well as giving Shallan something to focus on – and it's not like the stream of information is keeping Jasnah from being utterly badass and fending off any Fused that approach, so it's not quite as inopportune as she might believe.

---

'He was… unaccustomed to being able to do things like this. Not only using the Shardblade, but being physical. He'd always been afraid of his fits, always worried that a moment of strength would instantly become a moment of invalidity. Living like that, you leaned to stay back. Just in case.' I'm so, so glad that Renarin's finally getting the chance to step forward and do these things that he's always wanted to do – what is a moment of freezing up in a fit if he can heal from getting smeared by a thunderclast, after all? I don't think its likely that the stormlight 'healed' his epilepsy, though I'd have to wait for a WoB to be sure – but it sounds like the stormlight might be acting as a sort of buffer? idk, I don't know enough about epilepsy to give any kind of informed opinion

All of this sound and activity and frenetic energy sounds like it's playing hell on his nerves, oh man. You've gone through so much today, Renarin, it sounds like you need some serious recharge time after everything's done here.

Uh oh. Yeaaah, a thunderclast was one thing, but twelve small, fast Fused with weapons, and your stormlight running out… that's not something you can face right about now.

OH GOOD they have spanreeds to Urithiru; they're not entirely in the dark about why their forces aren't coming through

[narrows eyes] I'll bet that their inability to contact the Kharbranthians isn't an accident, but not in the way that they're thinking it is.

“There's nobody else.” R e n a r i n. He knows this could mean his death, even with stormlight healing, but then again, when has that ever stopped him? Certainly not in the first book when he tried to charge out, and not in the second when he stepped out into the ring to help his brother. But this time, no one is stopping him. No calls of 'That's not for you. You can't do that. You're not well.' This time, they're seeing Renarin Kholin as the man who can step forward and make a stand.

'Not very noble or brave, now was he?' Hah, it looks like you're one more that doesn't understand the definition of bravery, 'Rin.

Fffffffft, damn, but those stained-glass visions are still the coolest shit. 'These had always been right. Until today – until they had proclaimed that Jasnah Kholin's love would fail.' But it didn't. It didn't, in the greatest middle finger ever to anyone who thinks that Jasnah Kholin cannot feel.

AAAHAHAHAHAHA BOOOM, here come the REINFORCEMENTS. ENDGAME, MOTHERFUCKERS.

---

Shallan is still personality-flickering with no sign of stopping. She needs an anchor of some kind or I feel like this is just going to keep going, and that's. not healthy.

“We're getting too good at pretending.” YEAH, NO SHIT, Y'THINK.

“You don't have to worry. After I rest, I'll recover and settle down to being just one. I actually… actually don't think I'm quite as lost as I was before.” ...okay that's heartening but I'm still worried. That alone isn't gonna stop me worrying.

Oh, great. Looks like the humans aren't the only ones with reinforcements.

---

Yessss, Renarin giving orders like the prince he is! Lopen/B4 following them without a hint of hesitation!

Three shardbearers and two thousand troops? Plus B4 in the air once again and tackling the problem of the Fused? Considering how many of the Sadeas troops have already likely been defeated and the fact that the vast majority of the Singers have absolutely no battle training? It wouldn't be a complete rout, but the tides have turned to where the end outcome is a certainty, I believe.

D u d e, twenty times you healed yourself from getting smacked and/or smushed by that thunderclast-! Hooooly fuck, you're a tank, Renarin.

Carrying an injured Rock all the way down to the Oathgate had to be a trial without stormlight. Good thing they all know how to heave a heavy bridge!

“I think I used up all my Radianting for the day.” I feel you, Renarin. Working the Gate means you'll still be helping but won't be required to interact, and it'll be quieter. Not exactly recharge time, but it's the closest you'll probably get for now.

SUDDEN ROCK HUG. Ahhh, that's a nice thought, Rock, but sudden hugs from not-family prooobably aren't the best thing for Renarin. (Though he does need some time just Being Around his Bridge Four friends for a while, I think.)

'Renarin settled down nearby on some steps, trembling from it all, but grinning anyway.' Good. Even overwhemed and with the city buzzing too-loud around you, you can grin wide. You were awesome today, Renarin, and you deserve every second to bask in that.

---

Lift doesn't seem affected at all by the Thrill, at least from the outside. The Nahel bond can't help guard against its influence, but perhaps her boon/curse from the Nightwatcher can?

You are going to try to capture the Thrill. 'You lure the spren with something it loves.' At least Taravangian gave Dalinar some good advice at least once. And the Thrill… it does love Dalinar, is familiar with him, was probably all but bonded to him during those past years. If anything could tempt the Thrill into that ruby, it's Dalinar.

'“Thank you,” he whispered again to the Thrill, “for giving me the strength when I needed it. … Now, old friend, it is time to rest.” It… it really is amazing to see just how far Dalinar has come, from the first flashback and through the books up until now, and see how it all shaped him, each step of the way, so he could make that decision – and this one – at the crucial point.

---

I'm worried that you're not going to last long enough, Kaladin. Outrunning all those Fused takes power, and you're running out.

[winces] This is just a beatdown, and it's painful to watch. For every step he manages to get ahead, something else rises to take away that clawed-for advantage.

Well, shit. And there's the last of the light.

….except that they're turning tail-? OH, THE THRILL-

But Amaram didn't run. Amethyst-creature that he is now, despite the crack in his gemheart, he's still able to rise and make his way over to the broken, injured Radiant.

'Bridge Four.'

[quiet, internal screaming]

---

Looks like the Rosharans have their own version of '300 Spartans vs the entire Persian army' legend. It doesn't look like they're even going to need the battalion of reinforcements from Urithiru, though, because with the capture of the Thrill, they're collapsing like puppets with cut strings. Some are choosing to stay and some are choosing to split and run with the retreat, though, which. Hmmm. They're not under Unmade influence, but yet they're choosing to go with Odium's forces anyway? I'm actually surprised that there's not more of them that are simply too shell-shocked to move.

And the Everstorm passes as well, its power sucked away – why? Did it take that much energy to stay there in one spot in the first place, or does the removal of Nergaoul and the fleeing of Yelig-nar diminish its power here, or did Odium simply decide that he wasn't going to waste any more of his effort on this battle?

---

GOOD Lopen got light over to Kaladin so he's not lying there suffering from all the pains of his broken body

Haaaaaaaah – Rock broke his vow of pacifism. He'll probably be the next to swear Words, or at least do so soon, I think. We caught a glimpse of the cracks during his POV chapter, and this might well be the tipping point; he killed to protect.

Rock drawing the bow does indeed beg the question of how he did it if stormlight's not enough, and even if he was a Windrunner already, which apparently he's not, gravity and air pressure aren't gonna do squat against a bow's draw weight.

Another scene that needs to be done justice via art – the light breaking through as Dalinar kneels on the stone, the ruby that holds the Thrill (old friend) held gently, Lift resting her hand on his shoulder.

Tears of joy, maybe, but also of relief, and regret, and pain. There's nothing simple about it.

[preservationandruin]

Oathbringer Spoilers, Part Five: Chapters 121-End

Alright, one last push to finishing the book! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Both Radiant and Veil like Kaladin. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

I mean, if I could, I’d do that. 

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

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

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

I LOVE ADOLIN AND SHALLAN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SO UH THAT HAPPENED. MOASH FUCKING OFFED A HERALD. 

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

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

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

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

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

I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

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

I LOVE BRIDGE FOUR SO MUCH. 

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

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

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

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

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

A group flying the bridge four flag. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s gonna be Jasnah, isn’t it. 

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

OH MY GOD I WAS RIGHT: 

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

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

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

He Who Quiets. 

Fuck. 

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

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

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

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

Her brothers. 

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

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

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

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

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

Oathbringer, My Glory and My Shame

written by Dalinar Kholin. 

I like it. A good title. 

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

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

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

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

He promises it truths. 

A small, scared Cryptic. 

Wit starts saying the First Ideal. 

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

And with that, we end. 

[longroadstonowhere]

and i have finished rhythm of war

i don’t know how i didn’t see the taravangian twist coming? like, shards can change vessels, that’s what mistborn was fundamentally about at the end, and so of course taravangian gets to be the new vessel of odium, and we get to see how he fucks with things in the next book

hell, he’s already fucking with things now - the wit epilogues have always been these very tongue-in-cheek, super powerful moments because, like, hoid’s been almost literally everywhere, he’s got power out the wazoo, and he’s just here to make sure we all properly appreciate the story that’s being told, so seeing taravangian mess him with that hard? literally wipe his memories? that’s a hell of a way to make him even more terrifying than he was already gonna be

plus this gets rid of a villain who, while hateable, was not someone we were predisposed to feel things about - odium was odium, sure, but he was also rayse, and we knew nothing about rayse, so he just sorta existed, but now odium is taravangian and we have seen so much of taravangian from the very first book onwards that means we’re likely to be way more invested in seeing him defeated

(i just remembered, thinking about wit, that i never wrote about his apparent relationship with jasnah? which mostly i’m just kinda *shrug* about, although i do appreciate that jasnah is asexual, more rep is always nice)

i like where everyone else has ended up, and that we have a pretty clear path for what the next book will be focused on (especially because i believe it’s supposed to be szeth’s flashback book) (nearly wrote flashbook there and i almost wanted to keep it) - it’ll be interesting to finally see shinovar through these characters’ eyes

the cosmere hints continue to be interesting - obviously the outright seon mention is cool (and hopefully adolin is able to convince ala that they’re more chill than mraize), and thaidakar.... seems to be kelsier? lord of scars would hint towards that pretty heavily in my opinion, but we’ll see someday i guess (maybe we’ll get more hints in the next wax and wayne book? but that’s a couple of years off i think so no point in holding breaths)

all in all a strong book, i think - i like that navani got a lot of the focus, and that we learned so much more about listener/fused/singer cultures, and that there was such an emphasis on... finding healthy ways to support people with mental health issues? that’s such a clinical way of putting it, but yeah i love that this series is so consumed by mental health, it’s such a core tenet of how these stories are written and i feel like sanderson does a decent job with them (though i don’t know anyone personally who has DID so that aspect of things might be bothersome in a way i don’t know)

now i’ve got dawnshard to finish, and then... well, rereading other books i guess