#starsight brandon sanderson

[electronicgalah]

Just finished reading Starsight I AM SCREAMINGGG WHY DID THEY HAVE TO PUT A CLIFFHANGER AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[theladyjojogrant]

Skyward series without context:

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

[brunette-eyes-giraffe]

spinface as a married couple:

[lucydoodlessometimes]

spensa explorations, anyone?

[x-xxoxox-x]

Skyward fans get in

(I’m driving)

[itsnotmika]

it’s so cruel that i can’t read skyward for the first time again??? like what the fuck??

[sophieinwonderland]

The Plurality of... Diones (Skyward)

Art by bdonoho

Major spoilers for Starsight (Skyward Book 2)

The Skyward series is a young adult space opera in the style of Top Gun with a bit of eldritch horror and superpowers mixed in. Book 2 introduces a new alien race known as the Diones with one of the most fascinating reproductive processes I've heard in fiction.

Diones are a species that reproduce by melding together. They don't have male or female genders, but instead have changing colors. They also exclusively use they/them pronouns. When they decide to have a child, a red and blue Dione combine into a Draft.

Whenever a Draft is created, it gains a personality. A mixture of both of its parents in a random way, but also something new. Drafts are split down the middle, with a red half from one parent and a blue half from the other. Rather than referring to a mom or dad, as they don't have gender, they refer to their parents as "rightparent" and "leftparent." (I don't know if Diones continue to do this after they're born, or if those terms are just used by the Drafts. The other Diones in Starsight don't talk about their parents.)

If the parents or extended family don't like that particular Draft, they'll be redrafted. If they do, they give birth to them as a new child that will carry memories from its time as a Draft.

This is a point of conflict in the story as one Dione Draft, Morriumur, feels compelled to prove themselves to their family to show that they deserve to be born as a separate person.

Even though the Draft is a new personality, the parents still exist in their head too, watching, as explained by Morriumur when asked if they could feel their parents.

“Kind of,” Morriumur said. “It is difficult to describe. I’m made up of them. In the end, they will decide whether to give birth, or whether to pupate and try again. So they’re watching, and they’re conscious—but at the same time they are not. Because I am using their brains to think, as I am using their melded bodies to move.”

Art by Jillustrations

One of the later interludes in the book is written from Morriumur's perspective and describes an even more plural experience.

Being two people was an uncomfortable experience for Morriumur. On the left, one could argue that Morriumur had never known anything different. On the right, one could point out that one’s separate halves—and the memories they had inherited—knew precisely how odd the experience was. Two minds thinking together, but blending memories and experiences from the past. Only some from each parent, a stew of personality and memory. Occasionally their instincts fought against one another. Earlier in the day, Morriumur had reached to scratch their head—but both hands had tried to do it at once. And before that, at the sound of a loud bang—just a dish being dropped—Morriumur had tried to both dodge for cover and jump up to help at the same time.

Both parents are still there. The instincts of both influence Morriumur.

At this point in the book, Morriumur is about to be undergo the redrafting process themselves.

Morriumur asks at one point what will happen when redrafted.

“When I come back out, will I remember these months?” “Faintly,” Numiga said. “Like fragments of a dream.”

The description of remembering it faintly like fragments of a dream feels very dissociative to me. A personality was created and existed for these months. Then it's replaced by a new one that will only faintly remember the past few months, likely as if those months happened to somebody else.

Morriumur also hears internal communication they believe is from their parents, although they're unsure which is which.

You’d have been too frightened to fight a delver anyway, a part of them—perhaps one of their parents—thought. Too aggressive for dione society. Too paranoid to fight. Redrafting is for the best. For the best, another part of them thought.

The fact that Morriumur doesn't know is actually one of the more interesting aspects of plurality that isn't often covered in fiction. The frequent blendiness and just not knowing if a voice in your head is from you or someone else, and not knowing who it came from.

Massive Spoilers Ahead. If you haven't read Starsight but plan to later... you shouldn't have read this far, but seriously... stop reading here...

Into The Delver

Art by u/MagicalSpaceWizard

In the Skyward books, there are planet-destroying monsters called Delvers. The Delvers appear as indescribable dark masses the size of moons that cause hallucinations in any who fly into them.

This is how Morriumur reacted to a Delver appearing overhead in the sky:

It’s a delver! one mind trembled. Run! Flee! the other mind screamed. Around Morriumur, relatives scrambled away, running—though how did you run from something like this? Within moments, only Morriumur was standing there before the building, alone. Their minds continued to panic, but Morriumur didn’t let go, and slowly their minds relaxed and knit back together.

While the parents' minds are screaming to run away, Morriumur stands firm.

After this, Morriumur flies up to fight the Delver.

When training to fight Delvers, pilots were always instructed to bring a wingmate to help them differentiate between reality and the hallucinations. You would need two people since the hallucinations wouldn't be the same for each.

But Morriumur's unique circumstances made Morriumur immune to this.

“Two people…,” I whispered, holding my head. “You need—” “That’s the thing, Alanik,” Morriumur said. “I am two people.”

In the end, Morriumur's plurality made them perfect for combating the Delver. All Morriumur saw was overlaying shadowy images.

Morality Of Drafting

I love Morriumur's plurality in this book, and how it was depicted as such a positive thing in the climax of the story, despite seeming so alien to the main character.

Having said that, Dione society and how they treat Drafts bothers me. At one point, the characters have this exchange:

“But if they decide to try again, instead of having you, it’s kind of the same thing as you dying.” “No, not really,” Morriumur said, cocking their head. “And even if it were, I can’t really be killed—I’m a hypothetical personality, not a final one.”

The book doesn't really tell you whose perspective is right. To Morriumur, this is normal. Later, when about to be redrafted though, Morriumur is scared and doesn't want to go.

As far as I'm concerned, Morriumur is a person. That time they exist isn't just a hypothetical personality but a real one, and Morriumur being redrafted feels like the equivalent of a death.

But this itself is a debate within the plural and tulpamancy communities, if dissipating or getting rid of a headmate/tulpa/alter/personality is really the same as an actual death. What about accidental permanent dormancy? What about fusion? What about de-fusion? What a death is when it comes to plurality is complicated.

And ultimately, I like that the book didn't try to answer this type of question. We have the main character's human perspective. We have Morriumur's Dione perspective, and the perspectives of their family and culture.

But it doesn't feel like we're told what is right. The morality of their culture's practices are messy and complicated, and the book doesn't try to convince you who's right or who's wrong. It just presents them as two different conflicting perspectives.

Conclusion

The Skyward series is fantastic, as is its handling of this unique form of plurality that, while alien, is also deeply relatable to us as a system.

While the morality of Drafting is complicated, the plurality itself is treated as positive thing that was ultimately integral to the book's plot.

It was nice for the book to give us an interlude in Morriumur's head to really get a feel for their internal experiences. The book was written in 1st person in the main chapters, and this was the only alien whose perspective we ever get to see so directly. (There were other interludes but those focused on other human characters.)

So I'm really grateful Morriumur's interlude was included, and more generally, just absolutely love their character.

[books-to-add-to-your-tbr]

Title: Skyward

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Series or standalone: series

Publication year: 2018

Genres: fiction, science fiction, fantasy, adventure, dystopia

Blurb: Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on a planet that is constantly attacked by mysterious alien starfighters. Spensa, a teenage girl living among them, longs to be a pilot. When she discovers the wreckage of an ancient ship, she realises this dream might be possible...assuming she can repair the ship, navigate flight school, and (perhaps most importantly) persuade the strange machine to help her. This ship, uniquely, appears to have a soul.

[gracieelinn]

In case you wondered where my brain rot is rn, here's your answer: Brandon Sanderson and DreamWorks' Dragons, my beloved

[kathhey]

i think about spensa and then i remember how much she has been through and then i cry

[hinumay]

Callsigns:

Fm

Nedder

T Stall

I need to do the rest waa

[blogdavam]

I was going through Goodreads, and I came across this book. Does anyone know if it's part of Skyward legacy or something else

I'm a bit out of date with the news of the saga

[hauntedfarfalle]

Props to them for being willing to change but this drives me insane 💀

[brunette-eyes-giraffe]

Jorgen: I just want to hear those three magic words

Spensa: I love you.

Jorgen: That's sweet, but try again.

Spensa: Fine. I will behave.

credits: @/ pokedex-holder-pink on Tumblr.

[lucydoodlessometimes]

jorgen weight my beloved blorbo. see you soon

[x-xxoxox-x]

I made this last night at 4am😭