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preservationandruin · 7 years ago

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Oathbringer Liveblog, Part One. Chapters 10-14

Onward! These seem to be averaging out around 4-5 chapters a liveblog, which is a slow pace, but manageable with all the other stuff I’m doing.

Syl knows what sex is, Renarin is radiant, we learn how Dalinar got Oathbringer, Shallan discusses feminine knocks, I start collecting Rosharisms, Pattern is a chaperone, and Kal sees a card game.

Kal gets on Syl’s case for nagging him constantly. Her response?

“It is my solemn and important duty to bring happiness, light, and joy into your world when you’re being a dour idiot. Which is most of the time. So there.”

I love Syl. Anyway, none of the towns have been attacked, which is...either very good or very ominous. What are the voidbringers doing? Syl is rambling about how she’d be a good mother and teach little bits of wind to harass Kaladin. this village was actually attacked. They attacked a grain storage, though, and made off with the grain.

They’re gathering supplies. They’re not entirely magical creatures--they still need to eat. Although none of the men actually saw glowing eyes.

Syl: Oh! this lady thinks you’re pretty! Kal: hi maybe no

Just heterosexual things.

“Wow. She must be desperate living out here. I mean, look at you. Hair that hasn’t been combed since you flew across the continent, uniform stained with crem, and that beard.” “Thank you for the boost of confidence.”

True friendship. Anyway, we get the hilarious tidbit that apprently Syl has learned what sex is. Because people lock their doors but Syl can slip under them. And she’s decided that she needed to research because Kal wasn’t showing any interest in relationships--and then suggests that someone draw Kaladin a diagram. Of course, her reasoning is “people in relationships are happier,” which. Is sweet. I mean, a little misguided, but sweet.

Syl lowkey starts encouraging Kaladin/Shallan which. No. Do not bring a love triangle into my good christian home in this year of our lord 2017. Back, Satan.

Kal also has the disturbing revelation that since Syl is with him everywhere, she might just. assume. she’d be able to stick around when he was having sex with people. Apparently his visual reaction to this realization is enough that people might think he’s unwell.

Oh fucking shit, the Voidbringers are heading towards Kholinar. They have to know where the Oathgates are, and are heading there to get them before the Radiants do. Fuck.

Over to Adolin! Apparently at one point in his life he was afraid of horses, and makes the point that on Roshar, they seem alien. Which is fair. How the fuck did horses get on Roshar?

There had been a...bond between him and Sureblood. More delicate and indefinable than the bond between man and sword, but still there.

Of course, Adolin was the one who talked to his sword sometimes, so he had a habit of this sort of thing.

Wow, you could almost say that. He talks and listens to...those who have been ignored... (No i will not stop theorizing about Edgedancer Adolin).

Anyway, Adolin is still mourning Sureblood, understandably.

Renarin’s learned to make Glys into a blade! Adolin says it’s beautiful. Renarin also--accidentally--pulsed out Radiance and made a version of Adolin that was perfected, one that was complete and whole. He’s lightweaving--just a bit. Adolin is a little floored. And Renarin completely healed Adolin’s broken wrist.

Lightweaving and Regrowth. And he must have spoken at least three sets of Words, to have Glys as a Blade.

Another flashback--The Rift, 33 years ago. Is this what Dalinar mentioned earlier? The thing so bad it drove a soldier into the ardentia?

Anyway, Dalinar just won his own Plate (apparently how he did it involved kicking someone off a cliff, why is he like this). Sadeas wants to know if Dalinar is planning on marrying; Dalinar says he will if Gavilar tells him to; Gavilar wisely and instantly says not to bring him into this. And we get that Gavilar and Navani are married now, and that Jasnah is born.

Apparently Dalinar was drunk when they went over battle plans. WHY IS HE LIKE THIS.

But yes, this is Rathelas, the Rift. The time that Dalinar did or witnessed...something. Guess we’ll see what. Anyway, Dalinar wants to get the opposing Brightlord’s Blade; Gavilar points out that he only gets it if he finds the guy first.

And both of the Kholin brothers run off to start the fight halfway through Sadeas’ sentence. I love these shitheads. Anyway, at one point Sadeas and Dalinar were close enough that Sadeas felt safe tossing his main weapon to Dalinar mid-battle. I mean, it was back when Dalinar was a shithead, so.

Still, shithead or not, Dalinar has an eye for a battlefield, and realized that where they were standing was a trap soon enough to get Sadeas and Gavilar out of the way. Dalinar and his men weren’t so lucky. This asshole brightlord collapsed his own city onto his people to deal with the Shardbearers.

Dal is doing some pretty sick moves, though--jumping from bridge to bridge too fast for people to cut them down as he crosses the Rift to get to the enemy. And Teleb--the man he hired earlier--is shooting down his opponents so that Dalinar could get to Highlord Tanalan. I think Dalinar must have impressed him by actually sticking to the promise of “never making you shoot someone you like and your village not getting horrifically pillaged.” Dalinar may have been a shithead, but he kept the oaths he made.

Dalinar also prefers Plate to Blade, as a note. He points out that if you hit someone in Plate and they’re not in Plate, they’re done for, but with a Blade against Plate you’re against something that can actually stand against your blows. And Tanalan calls out the brutality of the way that the Kholins are devastating Alethkar to unite it.

A LITERAL CHILD IS STANDING BETWEEN DALINAR AND TANALAN, SAYING “YOU CAN’T HAVE MY DADDY.” STAB ME RIGHT IN THE FUCKING HEART WHY DON’T YOU SANDERSON.

At least he had the heart to cut that scene there. Dalinar did end up with the Shardblade, though. It’s Oathbringer. It was the Sunmaker’s own sword. Dalinar won Oathbringer by killing a child.

Dalinar rammed the Shardblade into the stone and leaned back, closing his eyes and remembering again the sound of a brave boy crying.

Hey, Hey Sanderson?? Hey. Sanderson. Can you give me a fucking break for once?? I didn’t need this in my life. I didn’t need this. God, no wonder this horrified some of Dalinar’s men. He killed a fucking child. I suddenly feel so much better about him giving the damn thing to Sadeas.

Back to the present day. Stormfather and Dalinar are talking; Dalinar asks why the old Radiants betrayed them.

Some things are better left forgotten, the voice said to him. You of all men should understand this, considering the hole in your mind and the person who once filled it.

Low blow, Stormy.

ANYWAY apparently Azir is spreading it around that the Prime Aqasix (Gawx) raised a child from the dead instead of, well, the other way around. Oh man please have Lift show up PLEASE. Anyway, apparently the Azish are negotiating with the Voidbringers.

That’s...unexpected. More signs that they’re much more sophisticated than people think. Anyway, Azir is stonewalling. Strange, given that they have Lift around, but understandable, given that this could be seen as the Blackthorn wanting to invade. Perhaps, then, Lift could go through the Oathgate herself? But that would involve telling the Alethi that Lift is a radiant...

I LOVE THE QUEEN OF THAYLENAH

The spanreed quickly scribbled a reply. Queen Fen was writing directly in Alethi. “’Kholin,’” Kalami read. “’You old brute. Quit spreading chull scat. What do you really want?’” “I always did like her,” Navani noted.

WAIT A MINUTE DALINAR WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT HERE:

There was a weapon that he’d decided to keep hidden for now. It might work as well as a Radiant’s Shardblade in opening the Oathgates--and might let someone reach Thaylen City by flight.

DID THEY GET THEIR HANDS ON SZETH’S HONORBLADE???

Anyway, Dalinar is feeling like something is off about this conversation, which I think is something he should pay attention to. Anyway, Elhokar is there and pretty goddamn pissed, accusing Dalinar of usurping his throne. Which, technically, Dalinar did.

CAN YOU TWO TALK ABOUT FEELINGS LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE FOR ONCE.

Oh man. Elhokar has abdicated the throne in favor of Dalinar. That’s...that’s going to be messy. It was coming, but it’s going to be messy. And Elhokar wants to lead troops back to Alethkar and set things right in his city--he’s pointing out that there’s something very, very wrong there.

Elhokar’s also like uh yeah can you send Kaladin with me because if I fuck up I want him there to fix things. Also things start sounding more and more like Elhokar has a fan-crush on Kaladin. Just saying.

Taravangian apparently has a radiant. That’s...I don’t want to be suspicious of a Radiant. And she has to have the actual thing (or an Honorblade) to open the gate. But Taravangian....

Ugh, I don’t like this. More girl Radiants, though! But also. Taravangian.

If Dalinar failed everywhere else, at least he would have King Taravangian on his side.

I shit you not this line made me yell “NO” repeatedly aloud DALINAR NO WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUT YOU TRUSTING PEOPLE YOU SHOULDN’T I KNOW TARAVANGIAN DOESN’T SEEM TO BE DOING ANYTHING WRONG BUT HE TRIED TO ASSASSINATE YOU

Anyway, Shallan is practicing being Veil, taking on that additional persona. Shallan’s also drawn more pictures of Urithiru than she realized, which...doesn’t help with the place’s distinctly Eldritch feeling.

Adolin showed up!...while Shallan had her safehand out. Whoops. He nearly drops all his shit, she shooes him out of the room, it’s great.

“In my defense,” Adolin said from outside, “you did invite me in.”

“I thought you were Palona!” Shallan said, doing up the buttons on the side of her dress--which proved difficult with three layers covering her safehand.

“You know, you could check to see who is at your door.”

“Don’t make this my fault,” Shallan said. “You’re the one slipping into young ladies’ bedrooms practically unannounced.”

“I knocked!”

“The knock was feminine.”

Anyway, while those two are being losers, we get this interesting note:

“My name is Adolin Kholin, I was born under the sign of the nine,” Now, since I’ve had it clarified that nine is the number of Odium, uh,,,

LET THIS NOT BE FORESHADOWING I SWEAR TO GOD

Shallan: completely disheveled, missing buttons, hair frazzled Adolin: instant dopey grin

Also, “Ash’s eyes” is a Rosharism. I’m gonna collect these like I do Scadrialisms. Also, Palona mothers everyone. Palona’s Herdazian, by the way!

And then Adolin realizes that, uh, he’s in Shallan’s bedroom. Which, um, might not be proper. Shallan is highly amused that now he thinks about this. And in case he needed to be more flustered, Shallan is always there--

“It wasn’t a lecture. it was a creative application of my tongue to keep you distracted.”

I would say phrasing, Shallan but I know that this was entirely intentional. Also, Shallan is gleeful that Adolin thinks she has an ego and is confidant, because that means that her attempts to seem like it are working. And then she thinks about her mother’s death and is like, welp, repression time!

Anyway, she formally introduces Pattern to Adolin. Adolin calls him a Shallanspren. Also:

“Sometimes secrets are important.” Adolin nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, they are.”

Wow you get one guess as to what that’s referring to, because I sure have some ideas (cough, murder, cough).

“Pattern, you’re to be our chaperone tonight.” “What,” Pattern said with a hum, “is a chaperone?” “That is someone who watches two young people when they are together, to make certain they don’t do anything inappropriate.” “Inappropriate?” Pattern said. “Such as...dividing by zero?” “What?” Shallan asked, looking to Adolin, who shrugged. “Look, just keep an eye on us. It will be all right.”

Explaining Human Customs to Spren is something I always find amusing. Shallan also realizes that given that Pattern basically believes everything she tells him, he’s not the best chaperone. Also, she tries men’s food. She nearly dies from the spices, downs both her and Adolin’s water, and of course then is when Pattern figures out what she means by inappropriate.

“Oh!” Pattern said suddenly, bursting up from the bowl to hover in the air. “You were talking about mating! I’m to make sure you don’t accidentally mate, as mating is forbidden in human society until you have first performed the appropriate rituals!”

Law of the universe: spren will figure something out at the exact worst and funniest moment for them to figure it out. So now Shallan is dying from shame and Pattern is buzzing “NO MATING” from a plate. Adolin is very amused.

Anyway, Adolin brought her some of the books he remembered really liking about Makabaki, and turns out that both of them were anxious about considering the engagement because they thought the other one was out of their league. Shallan points out that the last person she liked was an ardent and an assassin, leading to Adolin demanding to hear the story.

And they’ve just started kissing but Pattern has remembered his chaperone duties. NO MATING! Both Adolin and Shallan end up losing their collective shits.

Anyway, back to Kaladin, in the rain. Of course. The voidbringers are, apparently, playing cards. They really are just...another army, apparently. Is it something like the Inquisitors, where when Odium (or an Unmade’s) attention isn’t on them, they are more in control? They also don’t have the red eyes.

...maybe the everstorm just gave them back their autonomy. God, that’s a thought. Maybe it just let them be free and gave them their songs back. That’s certainly what it seems like. These aren’t voidbringers. They’re not even an army. They’re not fighters, they’re not prepared. They try to remember how to play card games they watched humans play for years, but can’t figure out the rules, because nobody told them.

They’re just people. Although Kaladin notes a “glowing yellow ribbon” in the air--a spren that they had watching?

Anyway, Kaladin sees what they’re like, and he surrenders.

#oathbringer spoilers #stormlight archive liveblog #protect kaladin stormblessed 2k17 #still down for edgedancer adolin

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luckspren · 3 years ago

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I’m starting Rhythm of War today, which I’m very excited about. But first some thoughts about Oathbringer under the cut

I looove Queen Jasnah. She was already pretty much a queen who was just missing a crown and I really hope she gets chapters in RoW to get her perspective on how she views this new responsibility, especially considering her little brother had to die for it.

Elhokars death made me sadder than I thought it would. If he had died earlier I think I would have cared only in regards to his families reaction and less about the death itself. But there is something about a character that realises his shortcomings and works to better himself only to fucking die right when he starts to change, that’s just a punch to the gut.

Dalinars backstory is brutal and I’m wondering if he will tell Adolin and Renarin about the actual circumstances of Evis death. There is so much potential there to explore the family dynamic more in how the brothers might react differently to the news and the tension that it could put on the different relationships, but I think there is probably not enough time for extended Kholin family drama

I’d love to see more of Renarin in general, though. Loved his scenes with Jasnah and I also hope we get more interactions with Adolin. Also have no idea how that whole corrupted-spren business will develop. What exactly is even the difference to regular Truthwatchers? If they didn’t see the future because that’s bad, then what could they see?? I really should have paid more attention, when the little blurbs at the start of chapters talked about the Knights Radiant...

Sooo ...is Maya coming back to life? I mean she basically saved Adolin in shadesmar and she was able to tell him her name and that has to count for something, right? So Adolin could possibly become an Edgedancer and I like the thought that the ‘dead’ spren could be saved (Also the thought of Adolin and Lift training together is pretty hilarious).

That said Adolins insecurities about leadership and his role in the war effort, now that practically everyone around him is Radiant, have to come back in some way. He dodged the crown, but maybe those themes could also be explored in his new position as Highprince? Thrusting him into a leadership position he didn’t want or prepare for, would probably more effective for this, though.

I was right and Shallan and Adolin got married and then I didn’t even get a wedding scene. Still happy about the outcome though. And I know Sanderson didn’t intend this, but with the way Kaladin and Adolin think about each other and the feelings they both have for Shallan and vice versa, there’s like a perfect set up for the Kaladin/Shallan/Adolin OT3 in the canon text. Obviously that won’t actually happen and I am happy with canon as it is, als long as I get plenty more interactions between these three.

I don’t think Moash will be redeemed and I think it has to be Kaladin who takes him down. I’m not sure what the next words will be, but I could see something along the lines of accepting that not every person can be or even wants to be saved, maybe??

So Azure is Vivenna and Zahel is Vasher, right? Where there like hints I was too dumb to notice in the Zahel-scenes?

I hope RoW dives more into Ghostbloods-plot (which by the way is a pretty sick name for a secret organisation)

So far there hasn’t been a really major character death and that still makes me nervous. Like disaster did strike, but all in all the pov-characters got through it more or less unscathed. I’m still kinda waiting for the other shoe to drop.

#Cosmere #Stormlight Archive #Oathbringer #so much happened in Oathbringer #I'm probably forgetting a million things

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kingjasnah · 4 years ago

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Okay, so the thought of Adolin of fully reviving Maya ALWAYS makes me tear up, even just a little. I just...how am I going to survive when it actually happens?! I can't be the only one who feels this way, right?

no its SO 🥺.....first of all the idea of like. if you respect something and treat it with love and just pour yourself into it you can bring it back to life without ANY radiant super powers at all. JUST trust and connection. he loved someone back to sentience that's so fucking wild i still cannot believe it happened

and like plot wise I'm so excited to see exactly how it'll go down. like i kinda want adolin to stay not a radiant (tho I have professional respect for edgedancer adolin gang) but i still want to see what their particular connection can do! every single moment with them in row was AMAZING and i can't wait for maya to get the full adolin bestie treatment

#asks #row #rhythm of war

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lizziestudieshistory · 3 years ago

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Books of 2021 - Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

It’s probably time to admit what is probably my most unpopular opinion about the Cosmere: I hate Words of Radiance. It’s the book I have to slog my way through to get to Oathbringer. Part of my dislike is heavily linked to my disillusionment about Shallan… However, I do think the big moments in this book – most notably the duel scene and final battle – cloud people to the genuine faults in it. It is a technical step up from The Way of Kings, but there are huge parts of this book that are unnecessarily slow to read and there is a huge thematic drop that starts in this book that I cannot forgive Sanderson for. I also dislike a lot of the individual plotlines, major characters are barely in this book, and a lot of the big reveals/developments feel unearned because they had to happen in this book so we could get on with the more important conflicts in the rest of the series.

This review has spoilers for The Stormlight Archive, you have been warned.

Structure and Plot

I don’t want to touch on the structure too much because a lot of my niggles for The Way of Kings continue into Words of Radiance. All of these books have too much fat around them – the interludes continue to feel irrelevant; the main bulk of the book is drawn out slightly too much; and the flashbacks are merely okay, they haven’t reached the level of Oathbringers’ flashback sequence yet. However, Sanderson does make some serious improvements in this book.

Shallan, our focus character, does have a much more interesting backstory and the flashbacks have slightly more bearing on the present-day plotline. However, for me, they lose interest on subsequent rereads and there are slightly too many of them that don’t add any new information once we’re aware of how terrible her family life is. They are an improvement on Kaladin’s, and I like them a lot more, however, considering how much we STILL don’t know about Shallan (as of Rhythm of War) Sanderson could have utilised them better in this book. Saying this, I do remember really liking the flashbacks on my first read, so I really do think my current negativity is a product of having read this book one too many times? I’m going to hold off on Sanderson for a couple of years after this reread so (if I remember) I’ll come back and reevaluate how I feel about Shallan’s flashbacks with a fresher eye.

Sanderson also gets us into this book a lot quicker than he did in The Way of Kings. Jasnah’s prologue is one of my favourites in the series so far, and part one does hit the ground running. It sucks the reader back into the world, refamiliarised with the essentials of the story, as well as introducing the next leg of the plot. It’s a fabulous introduction and it’s one of the strongest first parts in the series as a whole.

Unfortunately, the pacing doesn’t reflect this strong introduction – once Shallan loses Jasnah’s guidance, and Kaladin is established as Dalinar’s guard the book dramatically slows down. Kaladin’s chapters, while slow, have some differentiation to break them up with Bridge Four learning how to be guards. Shallan’s turns into an interminable slog across the countryside. One of the things I loathe in fantasy are the long journeys with nothing going on – sometimes they can be done beautifully. For example, I love Sam and Frodo’s section in The Two Towers, but Shallan’s is just painful. Sam and Frodo’s journey is so fascinating because of the internal struggle they are going through (together and separately), it’s atmospheric and powerful because of its character work. Yes they are trying to get to Mordor, but the goal isn’t what matters here – it’s whether Sam and Frodo can survive the journey, and what state they will be in when they get there.

Shallan’s journey is clearly a way to get her to the Shattered Plains in the right circumstances and it shows. We’re journeying from A to B, with a few obstacles thrown in. There is some development from Shallan as she learns the basics to being a conwoman from Tyn. However, again this is something thrown in to keep Shallan’s point of view interesting while she’s riding through the countryside. It’s not vital character growth that can only be done at this point in the journey. If we’re going to slog it through the wilderness there needs to be a point to it that can only be learnt from showing such a long journey – otherwise cut down Shallan’s chapters in this section and only show the necessary highlights, while hinting at the longer journey through her internal reflections.

I’m also just going to throw out that I was bored in part three – the end of this part is phenomenal, and contains the famous duel scene with Adolin and Kaladin, which is one of the highlights of the whole series. However, the build up to this scene is repetitive and a bit dull in places? It’s possibly because I’m not a huge fan of Shallan and Kaladins’ arcs in this book. I’ve never liked the Ghostbloods plotline (and it’s only gotten worse with the Thaidakar reveal in Rhythm of War), Shallan’s romance with Adolin is slightly cringey, and I’m going to have a rant about the Kaladin/Moash conflict when I get to writing about Kaladin’s character. The main plotlines in this book are a bit…painful? They scream filler for a lot of part three – I don’t necessarily mind it; I actually like the conflict between Adolin and Kaladin because it does make sense for both characters. It doesn’t do much except build a camaraderie between them and develop their characters, but there are a few too many scenes of it, along with the painful romance scenes. Sorry, romance isn’t Sanderson’s strong point…

Prose

Still painful, still don’t love it. I do think there is a slight improvement between The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance because there aren’t any egregious moments that stand out to me in this book. Some moments, such as Kaladin’s first flight through the chasms and then when he’s flying with Syl over the Shattered Plains, even stand out as highlights for Sanderson’s writing – I really feel Kaladin’s joy and sense of freedom. There are some lovely moments in this book, and it does mark an improvement in Sanderson’s writing style! However, I’m still not a fan of Sanderson’s prose as a whole, it still feels clunky in places, and I’d prefer it to be a little bit more refined. This is very much a personal preference complaint though, as I stressed in my The Way of Kings review.

Magic System

I should probably discuss Sanderson’s magic system in the Stormlight Archive at this point, especially as it’s becoming more and more relevant as we continue into the series.

So, for those of you who are reading this without having read the book (why?!), Stormlight is dominated by a hard magic system called Surgebinding. Human Surgebinders (I’ll probably discuss the Singer’s surgebinding abilities in a later review) are members of one of the ten orders of the Knight’s Radiant: Windrunners, Skybreakers, Dustbringers, Edgedancers, Truthwatchers, Lightweavers, Elsecallers, Willshapers, Stonewards, and Bondsmiths. Each order possess the ability to manipulate two of the ten surges using Stormlight to power their abilities:

Windrunners: adhesion and gravitation

Skybreakers: gravitation and division

Dustbringers: division and abrasion

Edgedancers: abrasion and progression

Truthwatchers: progression and illumination

Lightweavers: illimitation and transformation

Elsecallers: transformation and transportation

Willshapers: transportation and cohesion

Stonewards: cohesion and tension

Bondsmiths: tension and adhesion

They also gain magical armour and weapons known as Shardplate and Shardblades, although when each order gets their plate and plate depends on the order and spren/nahel bond. The order of the Radiant will depend on what oaths they swear and what type of spren they are bonded to:

Windrunners: honorspren

Skybreakers: highspren

Dustbringers: ashspren

Edgedancers: cultivationspren

Lightweavers: cryptics (“liespren”)

Elsecallers: inkspren

Willshapers: lightspren

Stonewards: peakspren

Bondsmiths: the Stormfather, Nightwatcher, or the Sibling (I don’t think we have a spren category for these three)

In Words of Radiance, we get the most insight into Windrunners and Lightweavers through Kaladin and Shallan, respectively, so I’m going to focus on these orders. This does actually work well because the Windrunners and Lightweavers can represent the two “styles” of orders quite well, each one being fairly structured or esoteric respectively.

Kaladin’s Windrunner powers are the most stereotypical magical ability – using gravitation Kaladin can fly, well technically fall in any direction, but the effect is the same. We see him using his powers to soar through the skies above the Shattered Plains, and run on walls. The effect is incredibly cinematic to read (although I suspect it would look ridiculous if poorly adapted into a visual medium) and enhances Kaladin’s status as an ‘action hero’. His other ability, adhesion, is slightly less dramatic – at least when it’s used straightforwardly. He can stick things together, or draw objects towards something else, including people, with magical superglue.

However, Kaladin’s, and the rest of the Knights Radiants’, powers are connected to the oaths he swears and his bond with Sylphrena (Syl). The Knights are granted the ability to surgebind and control their powers through 5 oaths, each order has different oaths but the first is universal: ‘Life before Death, Strength before Weakness, Journey before Destination’. In Kaladin’s case his oaths are connected to protecting others, which does slightly excuse Kaladin’s “saving people thing” and inability to let it go if people he cares about die. Whether Kaladin keeps his oath depends on whether Syl, his bonded Honorspren, best friend, and a tiny piece of divinity in her own right, agrees whether he is keeping them in spirit – something we explore at length with Kaladin’s plotline in this book.

Shallan’s Lightweaver powers are also incredibly visual, especially as she spends all of this book focusing on illumination, which gives her the ability to shape Stormlight into realistic illusions. Her abilities are particularly useful for subterfuge and lies as Shallan can use them on herself to change her appearance, or on their own to make it appear as if something is there when it’s not. Her other ability – soulcasting, the surge of transformation – still hasn’t been explored as of Rhythm of War. Soulcasting changes one substance into another, but exactly how it works and the extent of its power is still uncertain. However, from what we’ve seen through Jasnah, who also has the ability, it is overpowered and very cool.

Shallan’s oaths are less obvious than Kaladin’s and it’s hard to tell what oath she’s on by the end of the book – although this is also heavily linked to Shallan’s backstory and developments in her character in later books,Shallan is definitely a non-standard Radiant! Her oaths, after the initial oath, are made up of truths about herself. She speaks her truths to her spren, Pattern, in order to progress as a Radiant. Her oaths also force her to develop as a person, which has been a painful process because Shallan has been lying to herself since she was a child and doesn’t want to admit what she’s done.

The magic system is clearly very complicated, and we still don’t know everything about it, six of the ten orders haven’t been explored through their specific books, and even the orders we have seen a lot from through our viewpoint characters are shrouded in mystery – I’m still not entirely sure what Bondsmiths do despite having the Bondsmith book (Oathbringer) because the order is so esoteric. It’s well drawn and compelling, especially as Sanderson uses the progression of the Knights as a mystery throughout the books. Despite not being that interested in hard magic systems the magic in this book is interesting and I really like the structure around the Radiants – it also makes for interesting discussion, debates, and Harry Potter style quizzes in the fandom, which is fun!

Characters and Plotlines

Kaladin, Syl, and Moash – Unfortunately, my new found love of Kaladin was tried in this novel because Kaladin REALLY gets on my nerves in Words of Radiance. It’s not because I disagree with Kaladin per se… I actually agree with a lot of Kaladin’s anger, resentment, and sense of injustice with the social system in Vorin/Alethi society. Kaladin has a right to feel angry and seek retribution for what was done to him, and Bridge Four.

However, Kaladin walks around with a massive chip on his shoulder in this book, particularly in how he talks to and thinks about Dalinar and his immediate family. His motivation I can understand and sympathise with, but the impression of ‘I’m so hard done to, the world is against me’ that Kaladin radiates in this book feels completely at odds with the reality of his situation. Yes, Kaladin has a right to be angry. Yes, he has a right to seek justice. But there is no reason he should be so personally antagonistic towards everyone because of their social position. He is in a position of power, he’s outside the social hierarchy to a large extent, and in control of his own life (and the lives of the ex-Bridgecrews). Kaladin is angry at everyone and everything, but he’s losing the justification for a lot of his resentment, particularly when it’s expressed towards Dalinar and his sons.

In particular I have an issue with Kaladin’s main plotline around Moash and the attempt to assassinate Elhokar. Aside from the fact I hate Moash, to the extent where Moash could be dropped from the books without resolution and I wouldn’t bat an eye (sorry Moash fans - I’ve never liked him…), this plotline just doesn’t feel right for Kaladin’s character. It actually feels like a betrayal of the character we got to know in The Way of Kings and continue with in Oathbringer/Rhythm of War. I can’t see a world where Kaladin Stormblessed is okay with murder or assassination.

Kaladin’s whole deal is honour and justice - justice as in what’s morally right (legality is another thing entirely!) He also wants to protect everyone, including Syl - Syl perhaps above everyone else as Tien is dead - but this plot is something she explicitly isn’t comfortable with and is concerned about. I CAN see a world where Kaladin pursues a plan to see Elhokar removed from power, but not assassinated. The argument about Elhokar’s removal being like removing a gangrenous limb (or whatever the exact metaphor was) doesn’t hold up for his character.

What makes this whole plotline worse is it doesn’t really lead anywhere, other than placing Moash on the opposite side to Kaladin in the upcoming war. All that we really get from it is confirmation that Kaladin is a Windrunner to the core (which we already knew) and Moash is on whatever side Kaladin isn’t because they’re foils for each other. However, the only real outcome of this entire 1,000 page plotline is Moash is maneuvered into position for his arc in Oathbringer, and Kaladin gets to swear his third ideal. Yet Kaladin’s perspective doesn’t radically change and quite frankly working out the third ideal could have been done in another way, without betraying Kaladin’s character for two thirds of a book. It was there to conveniently get a few characters where they needed to be for the next book, and to let Kaladin have another superhero moment. I love Kaladin superhero moments as much as anyone else - I just wish it wasn’t prefaced with this plotline.

One thing I really don’t understand - and is why I dislike this plotline so much - is why we’re stressing so much on a Kaladin-Moash friendship anyway. They don’t feel like friends! Honestly, this is a larger problem with Bridge Four as a whole - their friendship with Kaladin doesn’t feel earnt. Well no, Rock, Teft, and Lopen do. But the larger part of Bridge Four feels like they’re just there? They definitely feel like they’re friends with each other, but not necessarily with Kaladin.

I’ve already confessed that I’m not the biggest fan of Bridge Four at the best of times because they feel like a sports team underdog narrative, which is honestly my worst nightmare of a storyline. However, I DO want to see Sanderson actually show Kaladin being friends with them, especially as they are such a huge part of his motivation to protect. We have one scene - the bar scene - with a few of them acting like a genuine friendship group. Yet this doesn’t make for a genuine friendship, we need more little moments throughout the book, including Kaladin.

Sanderson does improve on the Bridge Four dynamic, Oathbringer and Rhythm of War make me feel like Bridge Four are genuine mates a lot more than Words of Radiance does. However, for this book we do need to see Kaladin and Moash as real friends, maybe even as close as brothers, for the Elhokar assassination plotline to work. But we don’t! It’s easier for me to believe Adolin and Kaladin’s friendship than Moash and Kaladin! And Adolin and Kaladin spend most of this book bickering…

I think the real issue with this plotline is the execution. The way Kaladin’s character has been established, the lack of page time spent on Bridge Four as a whole and Moash in particular, and ultimately small outcomes for this plotline makes it feel tedious and slightly pointless. Sanderson needed to increase the REAL stakes - there was no way Kaladin was really going to lose his status as a radiant, just for narrative reasons - and work on the emotional impact. We need to believe Kaladin would really go through with the assassination, and his friendship with Moash before getting to this plotline. But as we don’t, or at least I don’t, feel this so Kaladin’s anger and it’s consequential plotline ends up frustrating me to the point where Kaladin is on thin ice for a lot of this novel.

Shallan - Okay, I’m going to address the elephant in the room later - the elephant is Shallan and the “Boots scene” if you weren’t aware. However, I do have a few other complaints about Shallan in this book.

My main issue with Shallan, excluding the classism I’m addressing later, is that a lot of her character feels unearned (in this book specifically not as a general rule.) Not in the sense that her powers feel unearned, or her backstory isn’t believable (which I really love), but her achievements and relationships in Words of Radiance feel cheap. There are several moments that stick out to me as being particularly annoying.

Firstly, Shallan’s ability to control Tvlakv, Tyn, and the merchant caravans. Personally, I find this whole situation ridiculous when I think about it. I can go along with Shallan being able to get to the Shattered Plains miraculously meeting the slave trader who sold Kaladin. However, the fact Shallan is apparently capable of manipulating Tvlakv into taking her there with very little conflict is ludicrous.

Shallan’s a shipwrecked, fairly middling noble with few resources at her immediate disposal, and a somewhat shy (if on later acquaintance bubbly) personality. It doesn’t make sense to me that she can have this influence over Tvlakv. Yes she’s been taught by Jasnah, and yes she does have some confidence/authority from her own position as a lighteyes. However, I’m really struggling to believe that, at this point in her story, she is a good enough actress to pull off an aloof lighteyed woman of significant enough rank to make Tvlakv do what she wants, especially when they’ve met in the middle of nowhere and Shallan has no other options.

My second issue with this is with Adolin and Sabarial. Adolin also falls into my larger complaints about Sanderson’s romances, which are by far the weakest elements in any of his books. However, let’s start with Sabarial:

So… Why the hell does Sabarial take her in? It makes ZERO sense. The ‘because it annoys Dalinar’ argument just doesn’t cut it, and neither does the ‘Sabarial is so weird’ perspective. As bonkers as he appears on the surface, we know Sabarial is a shrewd businessman. He’s lazy, but also a clever and manipulative leader, he doesn’t do anything without getting something in return. However, he doesn’t get anything from taking Shallan in except the satisfaction of getting one up on Dalinar? She doesn’t even do his accounts properly! It feels like an inconsistent character move that is only there to suit the storytelling and give Shallan more freedom, rather than demonstrate Sabarial's motivations.

Okay Adolin is both better and worse than Sabarial. I can genuinely understand why Adolin likes Shallan so much and vice versa. I love the relationship they have once it’s been established - they’re good for each other (well I think Adolin is better for Shallan than she is for him, but the point stands.) However, it’s just so insta-lovey! They just meet and it’s like the heavens aligned, and a perfect relationship blossoms. It’s not quite that fast, but it’s pretty quick. And I just don’t buy that initial push into their bond.

I just find this initial meeting and first couple of dates unbelievable? It’s also very cringey… I can’t read some of their ‘banter’ because it’s painful for me at this point - I’m literally Kaladin whenever he has to watch them together. It’s the worst combination of Sanderson’s sense of humour, his poor romances, and annoyingly quirky characters. By Oathbringer I do think they have a good, settled relationship going on, but in this book I really dislike the way it’s sparked. (I’m also questioning why Adolin doesn’t seem to be mourning Jasnah and is going out on dates? It just seems off to me!)

Honestly, I could probably live with both of these aspects if it wasn’t for the final, most egregious issue I have with Shallan in Words of Radiance. Her discovering Urithiru.

I cannot stress enough how much I HATE that Shallan discovered the Oathgate on the Shattered Plains. The other successes feel unrealistic and unearnt but are ultimately small moments that would have to happen in some form - Shallan has to get to the Shattered Plains, and she has to meet/fall in love with Adolin. They’re irritating in how they’re executed but are ultimately okay instagatory moments.

On the other hand, finding Urithiru is one of the biggest moments in the whole series! It’s a significant part of the climax of the whole book! Without it we’d be reading a very different series in Oathbringer and beyond. But giving this huge moment to Shallan is completely out of proportion to the work she’s put in. Yes, Shallan has been looking for it for a few months, she wants to continue Jasnah’s work. However, Jasnah has been slaving away at this for YEARS, literally YEARS. Why does Shallan get this moment of triumph? It’s completely unwarranted for what she’s done, especially as she literally couldn’t have done it without Jasnah’s research. It just pisses me off that we seem to give all the credit to her when, in reality, she drew a map.

I think this annoys me so much because Sanderson went down the ‘kill the mentor’ trope for this book. There was actually very little reason to remove Jasnah in the way he did in Words of Radiance - Shallan could have easily been ignored by Jasnah once they reached Shattered Plains as she’s dealing with the high stakes politics/war effort with Dalinar, leaving Shallan to get embroiled with the Ghostbloods and Adolin. This would have left small amounts of time to see them working together on their scholarship, whilst also giving Shallan room to grow. Using ‘kill the mentor’ AND having Jasnah return from the ‘dead’ felt cheap the first time around (nevermind this one!) whilst achieving very little that couldn’t have been done in other ways.

Overall, I just think Sanderson overplays Shallan’s competence in this book. She’s still a 17/18 year old girl and he’s overdoing it with her abilities that aren’t related to her Radiant powers. The discoveries she makes don’t live up to her reality of character and I find it irritating.

I’ve said a lot that is negative about Shallan - I do get more positive after this book, so that’s something I guess? Nevertheless, I do want to say one thing I really love about Shallan and this book is her backstory. Apart from Dalinar, Shallan has the best backstory out of the main characters we’ve seen so far. The abuse from her father, casual cruelty and neglect within her family, and Shallan’s own darkness is fascinating to read about - if slightly distressing. I don’t have much to say about it as a whole because I think it’s very effective in adding a darker layer into Shallan’s character, as well as being a much more interesting story than Kaladin’s was in The Way of Kings.

Sanderson hasn’t quite mastered the interweaving of the flashbacks into the main storyline in Words of Radiance, then again Oathbringer was exceptionally good in comparison to all the other books for this aspect. However, the Words of Radiance flashbacks are a marked improvement and made for a great way to deepen Shallan’s character past the hints we’d seen in her chapters in the first book. I think it’s a very believable backstory. It’s probably the backstory that’s having the most ‘present day’ impact on the character in question (again Dalinar is a close second but Sanderson dropped the ball with his character growth in Rhythm of War.) Shallan’s past is fabulous and well utilised by Sanderson to make her grow - and I did want to say something positive about Shallan because, despite not liking her, I do think she is a very well written character.

Pattern - I want to say that, despite my apparent vendetta against Shallan, I REALLY love Pattern! He’s so annoyingly sweet, sincere, and genuine! Actually he reminds me a lot of one of my dogs, which might be a contributing factor to my enjoyment of him? Either way Pattern is one of the best spren characters we’ve met so far - he’s amazing!

Dalinar - I’m mainly here to complain there isn’t enough Dalinar in this book and I miss him… I understand why he isn’t as present in Words of Radiance as he is in The Way of Kings and Oathbringer. However, I do think the absence of both Dalinar and Jasnah - my two “problematic faves”, plus Kaladin feeling very off for most of this book, contributes to why I don’t like it very much. Their loss leaves a big hole for my personal enjoyment and attachment, especially on rereads. It’s a very personal problem and comes down to who you read the series for (and whether you like Shallan or not.)

Although, when we get one of the few Dalinar chapters I am ecstatic because they’re all particularly punchy in this book! Chapter 67 - Spit and Bile - when Wit and Dalinar discuss his nature as a ‘benevolent tyrant’ is one of my favourites in the whole series. It’s a real moment of character realisation for Dalinar and gives us some FANTASTIC food for thought before we get to the shocking revelations of Oathbringer.

Kaladin and Shallan, Class Status, and the Boots Scene

Okay, it’s time to address the elephant in the room – Sanderson dropping the ball on his discussion of class conflict. I loved Sanderson’s introduction of class conflict, it’s something I’m particularly interested in as a British person. However, he handles this theme badly in Words of Radiance and drops it completely in Oathbringer, and it was almost a deal breaker for me on this reread. I’m genuinely upset about it.

So, a lot of Kaladin’s arc in this book is centred around him learning to look past his (valid) anger over what was done to him by the lighteyes, and specifically Amaram. Of course, this can’t really be resolved in one book, and I do hope Sanderson listens to the very vocal criticism around his “resolving” of Kaladin’s anger by pressing Kaladin into siding with his oppressors without uncritically examining his choices in books 3 and 4 (as well as making him a de facto lighteyes himself). However, in Words of Radiance Kaladin is very much giving into his anger now he has the opportunity to live, rather than just survive, and Sanderson uses a lot of his interactions with Dalinar, Adolin, and Shallan to show him ‘not all lighteyes are bad’.

I do have issues with the way Sanderson handles this with Adolin and Dalinar - maybe Dalinar not so much because his character has A LOT of other issues going on and his interactions with Kaladin are very much structured by their positions in the army. Their relationship remains largely professional, especially in this book, and Kaladin is shown to trust and respect Dalinar and vice versa. Not to mention that Dalinar is actually prepared to listen to Kaladin’s version of events and do his best to get justice for Kaladin against Amaram - it’s just not an easy situation to prove or resolve, and it can’t be done in the way Kaladin wants.

As an aside for the rest of the series - I do have issues with Kaladin’s long term idolisation of Dalinar as a leader and ‘noble’ lighteyes. We haven’t really seen Kaladin’s reaction to the revelations from Oathbringer (the in-world version) which I do think would change the dynamic between them. After all, the revelations about Dalinar show him to be worse than Amaram in many respects! Kaladin should have a reaction to the morality around Dalinar’s actions in the past, even if he is trying to change, and not just continue as they did before. Although, this issue ties into the larger problems with the series structure and how Sanderson keeps all but dropping Dalinar’s character growth in every other book - we need to address the consequences for revealing his past to the world, particularly with his family and political allies, not just sweep them under the carpet as we did in Rhythm of War!

In contrast to Kaladin’s relationship with Dalinar, he and Adolin are on a slightly more (although not completely) equal level, as demonstrated by their bickering, banter, and eventual friendship. Their relationship begins with Adolin’s suspicions about Kaladin, Kaladin’s hatred for lighteyes, and a mutual grudge against each other, but their relationship grows into a very real friendship after the duel sequence. Their relationship is one that has never bothered me because they had that rocky start. They grow into a friendship of equals, their distrust turns into a genuine bond because they learn to trust each other as they prove to each other that they aren’t what they first assumed.

Most importantly, despite the rocky start, neither of them are actively dismissive of the other based on their social status - Adolin never demeens Kaladin for being darkeyed and once Kaladin gets to know Adolin better his hostility towards lighteyes in general vanishes as they established their personal bond. The only moment you can point to Adolin actively dismissing Kaladin due to his social status is in The Way of Kings when he asks him to take a message to someone in the prostitute scene (sorry I’m not looking up the page numbers.) Adolin never shows dislike of anyone because they are darkeyes and definitely does not toy with those of a lesser social status than himself. Yes, I do agree Sanderson could do a better job of using the relationships between Adolin, Kaladin, and Bridge Four to address some of the subconscious biases Adolin holds. But Adolin is never cruel or manipulative to those with less social status.

This brings me to the big reason why I’ve come to loathe Shallan and the key reason I dislike Sanderson’s mishandling of the social class discussion. It’s not even necessarily Shallan herself that I dislike, it’s the way the narrative frames her character and Sanderson’s dismissal of Kaladin’s anger. I could look past most of the problems I’ve raised against Shallan if it wasn’t for the way Sanderson portrayed her in this book. I still don’t think she’d be my favourite character now but I wouldn’t feel the urge to close the book every time I have to read her chapters.

However, Shallan is probably the best example we have in a point of view character of the minor abuses of the lighteyes against anyone of a lower social class than themselves. I’m not talking about the major crimes committed by Sadeas or Amaram where they show a blatant disregard for life, but I am talking about the subtle abuses of those with wealth and rank against those less fortunate.

Throughout the series we see Shallan casually and absentmindedly manipulate, dismiss, and bully darkeyed individuals. She’s not maliciously cruel, but she is casually abusive. She treats people like Kaladin or the slaves she ends up owning as less than herself, especially when she first meets them. I’m not here to say this is Shallan’s fault per se. She has been taught to do so by her society, she’s been indoctrinated into a system that believes those with darkeyes are lesser than herself because the Almighty has deemed it to be this way. It’s an inbuilt, largely unconscious bias formed by the society she was brought up in. I’d actually like this character trait if Sanderson used it to challenge Shallan and make her grow as a character, like pretty much EVERYONE else has to do with aspects of their character!

But Sanderson doesn’t. Shallan is given a free pass for toying with darkeyes or those of a lower dahn than herself and using them to amuse herself, or even for dismissing them. And it’s not just once she does it, it’s a systematic behaviour in this book. Now, I will admit most of the time this behaviour is used against...unsavoury characters - it’s usually people like Tvlakv, a slave trader, who often fall victim to Shallan’s manipulation. As an audience we don’t like Tvlakv and don’t really care if he’s manipulated and pushed around by Shallan because of his earlier treatment of Kaladin. We like Kaladin, we like Shallan, but Tvlakv? Not so much. But her casual dismissal of Tvlakv’s life and livelihood (putting my loathing of slavery aside for the moment) does show Shallan’s contempt of those beneath her in general.

The better case to demonstrate Shallan’s classism is in her scenes with Kaladin. There are two moments I could use to make my point: the infamous “Boots” scene in chapter 28 and the Chasm sequence in Part 4. In both these scenes we see Shallan, in a position of power, dismiss Kaladin - the “Boots” scene is by far the worst of these two, but the later sequence give us a better glimpse into the problems with Sanderson’s framing of Shallan’s and Kaladin’s past traumas. Shallan’s trauma is validated by this scene, but Kaladin’s very justified dislike and anger is dismissed by both Sanderson and Shallan. There is very little, leading up to the Chasm sequence, that suggests Shallan is a nice person to Kaladin and he has a lot of long-term trauma from mistreatment and abuse from lighteyes in general. Kaladin should be allowed to hold onto his resentment to some extent. Instead he is forced to get rid of it because of Sanderson’s inflexible belief that all anger, even righteous anger, is wrong.

I could elaborate on this scene but as this review is now ludicrously long, I’m going to stick to the Boots scene as it is simpler and I don’t really need to summarise the scene because it’s so well. The basics you need are: Shallan uses her gender, social position, and Kaladin’s relative lack of authority to humiliate him in front of his men and con him out of his boots. And it’s played for laughs.

There is a small hint later on that Shallan shouldn’t have done what she did when Kaladin confronts her about the incident outside the meeting of the Highprinces. Yet, a large part of this was Shallan saving face when she realised he is Captain of the Kholins’ guard and could pose a serious threat to her plans if he felt so inclined. She doesn’t express any remorse for her behaviour morally speaking, nor does she think that she shouldn’t mess around with people who can’t fight back. No, she’s remorseful because it’s convenient for her.

The 'Boots' scene isn’t funny. It’s a clear, if childish, display of the sheer amount of power lighteyes have over everyone socially below them. But Sanderson doesn’t depict it in that way. It’s just there as an amusing scene, and to get Shallan and Kaladin off on the wrong foot. Kaladin was just doing his job, grumpily, and didn’t deserve this treatment from Tyn or Shallan. Especially as Shallan very much knows that she ISN’T a conwoman and she really IS Adolin’s betrothed - she doesn’t need to impress Tyn, especially not this close to the Shattered Plains. So, she has little excuse for acting in the way that she did, and she really didn’t need to humiliate Kaladin in front of his men. As the audience, we know Kaladin’s command isn’t going to be affected because of his history with Bridge Four, and we know he can replace his boots. But Shallan doesn’t and it only shows how little she really considers the lives of those below her. It’s just casual cruelty that served no purpose except to entertain her and Tyn.

The fact that Shallan has never really been called out for this by the narrative/Sanderson, only by Kaladin and more socially aware fans, is outrageous. Anyone else would be - and everyone else has similar issues that narrative insists they work on and overcome. Yet Shallan is consistently let off for this behaviour. On the other end of this scene, Kaladin is forced into letting go of his anger and falling into line with the Kholins and other lighteyes, despite being systematically oppressed and mistreated by the lighteyes as a whole. Sanderson doesn’t allow Kaladin his anger and he’s punished for it throughout this book.

I will say that Kaladin isn’t completely in the right here, he did need to learn that not everyone is the embodiment of evil just because they are born into wealth and privilege. However, neither was it okay to dismiss the complex dilemma around Kaladin and class - where he needs to overcome his prejudice against everyone at the top of the social system, because there are good lighteyes, whilst still challenging that system - by making him a lighteyes. This doesn’t solve anything! His anger is valid and righteous. The Vorin social system does need a complete overhaul and Kaladin should be allowed to take the helm for that social movement - even if this arc isn’t at the forefront of the series (you know because we’re all slightly busy saving the world!)

Sanderson shouldn’t keep allowing Shallan a free pass for deeply rooted and problematic behaviours and attitudes. It doesn’t need to be a major point of discussion, especially as the series has evolved and everyone is more concerned with staying alive. However, this is a huge series, there is space in it to address this issue every now and again in the background of the novel, particularly in non-combative plotlines. It would also help to change the perspective in moments like the “Boots” scene. Rather than showing these as just funny moments, take the time to show that they are symptoms of a serious problem in Vorin society and demonstrations of the casual abuses of power lighteyes can get away with on a daily basis.

At the end of the day, Kaladin is going to be fine - and he does drive me nuts with the huge chip on his shoulder that he has throughout Words of Radiance. His only real consequence from this scene is wounded pride, he’ll recover. However, Shallan shouldn’t be let off the hook for it either and Sanderson does need to pick up this plotline on the abuse of power and class in the series. He introduced a serious discussion on the dangers of a class-based society and it’s a shame (and irresponsible) to just drop it now.

Conclusion

So I think we can all agree I don’t like a lot of this book. I’m in the minority here. There are some fantastic moments throughout Words of Radiance, but as a whole I struggle when rereading this particular entry into The Stormlight Archive. Sanderson drops the ball on one too many issues, and I really dislike Shallan here. I do get on with her slightly more in later novels - well in Rhythm of War - however, having such a heavy focus on her here makes it a slog for me to read.

Still, onward and upwards! Oathbringer is (probably) my favourite book in the whole series, although I’ve only read RoW once so that might change when I finish this reread. Hopefully I’ll have a lot more positive things to say in my next review - and I finally get to make my speech on why I love Dalinar and his backstory!

#words of radiance #brandon sanderson #stormlight archive #cosmere #book review #kaladin stormblessed #dalinar kholin #moash #pattern #not tagging a certain character because last time i had really nasty comments #i still really love this series #just not this book #fabulous sanderlanches here though #the stormlight archive

8 notes · View notes

peachdoxie · 4 years ago

Text

OKAY notes on chapters 2 and 3 of Rhythm of War! I'm going to attempt a read more but idk if it will work, sorry.

Chapter 2

"Kaladin grunted in reply." Glad to see his characterization is still consistent.

The new Fused powers are super dope, but fucking rip to Kaladin. That's one of the most physically brutal attacks Brandon has written

Adolin advising Syl in fashion is 10/10

Also rip Kaladin pt 2 with the insomnia

Interesting evolution in Shallan's multiple minds

Hmm yes, the Fourth Ideal for Shallan. Remembering "everything." Gonna be torture to watch her go through that. But what could she be repressing, after what her other memories were about?

Syl mimicking Kaladin is fucking hilarious and I absolutely love it

"Gagadin!" ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

Kaladin very briefly dated Lyn, but she broke up with him. I wonder how much Syl had to convince him to date her.

Also, Syl and Hesina complaining about Kaladin right in front of him, another 10/10. “Has he been disrespecting you again, Syl?” “It’s been at least a day since he mentioned how great I am.”

So. Kaladin and his father are barely on speaking terms, it seems.

"Only, everyone had given up on Herdaz." Oof.

The Mink sneaking away by leaving a dummy behind seems very Herdazian

"“And abandon his men?” Kaladin asked, aghast." Really fucking hope Kaladin isn't forced to do this, because honestly it would probably destroy him, but it also seems in line with the speculation on his Fourth Ideal

“Well done!” Syl said as he left the shed. “You barely scowled when they called you Brightlord.” lmao

“I had hoped,” Lirin said softly, “that our message would inspire you to approach covertly.” Lirin I know you're disappointed in Kaladin for being a soldier who kills people, but you could be a tad nicer by greeting him with something other than a criticism

Holy fucking shit, that's one way to get Kaladin's parents to Urithiru

Chapter 3

The chapter is called "The Fourth Bridge". Neato.

Okay, so Larkins are useful to making fabrials. But they're now mostly extinct. And the wars in Aimia were in part about Larkins. That's some lore I wasn't expecting. And Rysn has one....

"Dalinar said from behind, his voice as steady as steel, as immutable as mathematics." Navani confirmed for fucking nerd.

"But they could send flashes of light that could be interpreted." Roshas invents Morse Code, more at 11

Aluminum, huh? Wonder who helped them with that....

"She wished she could share it with Elhokar." Ouch, my heart 😭

Okay, so the Azish helped with the aluminum

Also Navani needs to stop selling herself short. Fuck you Gavilar.

But also I feel that her...it's not quite imposter syndrome but close is gonna be relevant to her Ideals, if she does in fact become a Radiant

Bridge Four is physically part of the Fourth Bridge I'm gonna cry

Highmarshal Kaladin? Wonder what he feels about that.

Mapping expeditions of the eastern Shattered Plains. Inch resting....

Okay, so we've got a bunch of Edgedancers in addition to a bunch of Windrunners. That tracks with historical Radiant numbers, iirc

Rip Lift, going through puberty

Okay ngl I'm really enjoying reading about the Fourth Bridge with all the Radiants on it. It feels like something out of Dalinar's visions, which I'm sure is not something that's slipped past him.

Though I am also struck by the mental image of the Fourth Bridge burning and falling out of the sky, so thanks for that, brain.

One of Navani's insecurities is that she feels she's not really part of the endeavor of building the Fourth Bridge and all the other fancy fabrials because she's not the one doing the engineering and whatnot. And that's true, she's not, but she's also the one who brought them all together to make these things happen, and I feel that's something that shouldn't be underestimated. Navani is very good at organizing people, and I think her involvement goes beyond just being a rich woman who can provide the funds to make something happen. I know I'm hoping for a Dustbringer Navani, but I also thing Bondsmith isn't out of the question.

Kaladin, taking the name Stormblessed as his house's name, but also not telling his father. Color me not surprised.

Oh shit, Edgedancers with Regrowth serve as the Radiants' surgeons. That's...gonna cause problems for Lirin. Hashtag another identity crisis. Wonder if he'll become an Edgedancer or something, or if he'll turn down the chance to be Radiant. I don't even know if a spren would be drawn to Lirin, nor which kind.

"She thought, for the briefest moment, she heard a tone in the distance. A pure note vibrating through her." Inch resting....

The Urithiru gemstones resist Dalinar's attempts to infuse them. And Navani thinks that Bondsmiths are connected to the tower itself, in some way. Branderson give me the Urithiru lore.

I also wonder if it's related to the fact that Urithiru is the one place made of stone that's acceptable for the Shin to walk on.

So the Sibling is "slumbering" and that's seen as final by the spren because it was killed. But reviving a spren is...sort of possible? If Adolin and Maya is worth anything. Branderson give me the Sibling lore

Thought just now: I wonder who knows about Adolin's brief connection with Maya. I would imagine that Renarin is the most likely to know.

"Only [Alethi] are stubborn enough to bully nature herself." I mean, that's basically how Dalinar convinced the Stormfather to bond with him at first.

Also I have the feeling this beggar guy is the Mink, snuck aboard the ship, though I always am suspicious about beggars.

Lol yep, it's him. And he managed to get past the Cobalt Guard. This guy is gonna be entertaining.

Oh boy, more Fused! And ones who can fly! The next several chapters are gonna be fun to read!

Anyway, that's chapters 2 and 3! I'm excited for next week!

#anecdotes by peachdoxie #stormlight archive #stormlight spoilers #rhythm of war #peachdoxie liveblogs stormlight

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radiantmists · 4 years ago

Text

rhythm of war part two thoughts

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (spoilers through the second interludes under the cut, and at the very bottom some comments based on what i have to assume is a major spoiler for the entire book, or close to it, though i'm warning again beforehand.)

well, last things first: taravangian's working against odium! i'm super excited about this, and very happy about the support for the concept that Taravangian's compassion isn't his curse, it's just the division of his intelligence and compassion that's sthe problem.

so we've been able to talk to the sibling, who is mostly trying to help despite genuinely feeling that what navani is doing is wrong. except now they're locked away, and navani is under the direct scrutiny of rabaniel and messing around with her is going to be risky. that being said, we're on our way to some very interesting revelations about how investiture works on roshar:

the stormfather is purely of honor. the sibling is a mix of honor and cultivation. the nightwatcher is purely cultivation

the sibling should not be able to function on pure stormlight, because it's purely of honor.

lift may not run on stormlight at all-- we already knew she can't pull it from spheres.

adhesion, which is somehow a fake surge and purely of honor, is not totally cancelled by whatever rabaniel did to the sibling. from lift's interlude, neither is regrowth when she uses it, which if i had to pick is the surge i would choose to be purely of cultivation.

as far as we can tell, people can still draw in stormlight with no issue, they just cant use it to power surges.

windrunners, who bond honorspren, are less affected by the fabrial: this applies especially to kaladin and syl, and we know syl is different from other honorspren, older. my money is that she's in some way more fully of honor than the others. lift, who's been hugely modified by cultivation directly, is also immune. the edgedancers as a whole are not immune and apparently are reacting as badly as anyone else.

...syl notes in the last set of interludes that she's different from other honorspren, mentally. is this a byproduct of whatever she did to sneak out of shadesmar, or of her being older? interesting.

To me, this all implies that whatever rabaniel did interferes with how cultivation and honor interact. lift, who seemingly only uses cultivation's investiture, can power the surge that seems most directly associated with cultivation; kaladin, probably closest to honor, can do the surge that seems to be entirely honor. the regular edgedancers aren't immune at all because they run on stormlight; the windrunners are somewhat but not fully immune because they're almost fully of honor, but cultivation likely had some hand in the way honorspren were made after the shattering.

Regrowth really is a very odd surge, compared to the others, which seem to deal with much more fundamental physical forces.

the fused do have access to regrowth while powered by voidlight, though. interesting.

speaking of: did navani's weird sphere contain some kind of... cultivationlight? or maybe it's some kind of combination, and that's why the sphere exploded right around the time of rabiniel's experiments (or the sibling was drawing on it somehow?)

on a more immediate level, the current tower resistance is as follows: navani, under constant monitoring but she has the best chance to figure out how to fix this shit. kaladin, who's a mess, being hunted by the pursuer, and who's about to start getting suicide-baiting nightmares from odium, but he does know how to fight! lift, who's amazing and knows how to sneak around the tower but is being hunted by someone who i assume has to be mraize. and rlain, masquerading as a singer (im so worried about him i hope he's okay).

if this somehow ends with kaladin killing mraize to protect lift before he can give shallan answers, i'm going to fucking SCREAM.

speaking of frustrating things: lirin turn on ur location i just wanna talk. Kaladin was actually rebuilding himself until this whole invasion thing, and i don't understand how lirin can look at a man who's that committed to doing good, sees exactly what it is that drives him to kill, and then calls him a monster.

I loved Kaladin's efforts to deal with mental health care! He's in the unique position ofhaving way more political power than any medical professional, darkeyes, or mentally ill person could ever have hoped to have, and I really want to see him come back to this once the world is burning down a bit less again, especially because it genuinely seemed to be helping him.

navani's plots have sorta been subsumed into this whole plotline, but i enjoyed what we got-- the little episode with the other scholars taking bets on whether she'd use tomor's fabrial was adorable, and i also liked how clear it is that they look to her to make things work.

moving on, uh... shadesmar stuff.

adolin's making some progress at waking maya! she doesn't talk but she shows a clearly unusual ability to learn and make independent decisions. i love it.

...also the thing with notum's horse implies that ryshadium are sentient enough to imagine spren. that's fun, and also terrifying.

adolin offering to stand trial for the crimes of humanity is fascinating, but all i'm thinking about is the episode of avatar where he agrees to stand trial for kyoshi, except in this case we already know that humanity did actually do the thing he's in trouble for. it would be unjust to punish adolin for it, but... i worry.

especially because there are, apparently, new deadeyes. this isn't extraordinarily surprising as syl was two skips away from death (though, im curious, does it work differently if the spren's never been a blade prior to dying? or are there just deadeyes wandering around who aren't tied to blades?) but it is very alarming.

and then there's the other thing: pattern is lying to shallan. i frankly don't think it's as simple as him being a spy for the ghostbloods; we saw even here that he's a terrible liar, and to have concealed this he'd have to have been pretty impressive.

on the other hand there was clearly some shit going on between shallan, her family, and the ghostbloods when she first got pattern. he's admitted that he has more exposure to humans than most spren. it doesn't look great, honestly.

i also appreciate that brandon is acknowledging how fucking weird shallan's timeline is. hopefully we get some answers about this.

adolin and shallan's relationship continues to be adorable; the sequence with the starspren is lovely and i totally get why it's brandon's favorite chapter in this part. between this and part one, he clearly enjoyed how the shadolin came out in this book and i agree. the fact that his romances continue after the marriage, with issues beyond just jealousy, is one of my favorite things about sanderson books.

venli's whole set of pov's this part was about walking up to urithiru. i really do want to like her, but she spends a ton of time just following more dynamic characters around and observing in these first two parts, and if not for the juicy secrets rabaniel's been dropping, it would make me just want to get back to other characters. hopefully that'll change in the next few parts.

i was going to make a comment about how we havent even had flashbacks yet, but i just glanced at the POVs for the next part, so I guess those are coming. I do wonder if these eshonai flashbacks will be info venli knows, or what.

she did kill someone for the first time, and attuned the rhythm of the lost for the dead man. the whole incident disturbs her, and i appreciated that as the rest of our viewpoint characters are extremely accustomed to death. i'm interested in seeing how this affects her going forward.

the epigraphs are so exciting! sazed is writing to hoid again, but this time he's gotten his bearings and spoken to some new shards... ones we haven't heard from before! also he asks hoid to say hi when he's on scadrial, which, fair enough tbh. i dont remember whether hoid shows up much in mistborn era 2 but for some reason i have the feeling he is not going to oblige this request.

the epigraph where sazed mentions he wants someone who can both preserve and kill immediately made me think of kaladin. (i think this is what he ends up trying to do with wax, but shhhh) he and sazed would agree on a lot of things philosophically, i think. (omg au where kaladin ends up working for sazed?? i have no idea how this would work the idea just fascinates me.

...where are the heralds? did dalinar take them with him, or are they in the tower? if the latter, are they also passed out? probably not, since they're not radiants, right? although whatever they are is very investiture-dependent so who knows. vasher's probably alright.

why is odium afraid of nightblood? is he worried it could eat him?

lots of POVs for the next part, but no shadesmar crew, so i guess we'll find out whether adolin gets executed by honorspren later. i do wonder why so many pov's from the battlefront; i guess something more is going to happen along those lines than i'd really expected. crossed fingers for some actual insight into renarin, finally.

in light of said spoiler: holy god i hope that division (between taravangian's intelligence and compassion) doesn't continue, though I have the horrible feeling that it will. This puts sazed's discussion of the intent of a shard combined with the cleverness of its vessel into a terrifying light: a godlike being who is at his smartest when he's a complete sociopath is like, the worst case scenario, not even taking into account that the odium shard is uniquely suited to make people act on impulses. this is so bad.

but i can't know the full extent of that until i read the context, so let's move on!

#row liveblog #row spoilers #holy shit

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tanoraqui · 6 years ago

Text

In my defense, I was left unsupervised. Music (I suggest listening at 1/2 or 3/4 speed, so you have time to read)

For those days we felt like a mistake

Teenage Kaladin lays on his parents’ cremmed roof during the Weeping, staring despondently up into the rain

Those times when loves what you hate

Young Shallan kneels on the floor, face in her hands, held by her father, who has placed himself between her and the pooling blood beside them. The shining knife is discarded on the floor, light fading

Somehow We keep marching on

Kaladin and Shallan in the crevasses, Shallan a couple steps ahead with a messy map. She’s turning back to him, and “Storms...she smiled anyway.”

For those nights that I couldn't be there

Dalinar the Blackthorn, racing into battle on Gallant, grinning feral and sharp and eyes just slightly shining red. Shardplate polished and Shardblade gleaming, reflecting the flames around and ahead of him.

I've made it harder to know that you know

Image pans/expands sideways to see Adolin racing after him, on Sureblood with his own Plate and Blade, expression excited but mostly determined to catch up. The flames don’t quite reach back to him

That somehow

Expands again--Renarin is running after them on foot, Bridge Four coat flung over his finer clothes, grimacing with the effort of holding a Blade far too big for his Plateless hands

We'll keep movin' on

Dalinar’s hand opening The Way of Kings; the song lyric is on the page

There's so many wars we fought

Kaladin fighting in Amaram’s army

There's so many things we're not

The Knights Radiant of old, arrayed and shining and glorious, fighting voidbringers (Dalinar watching from the side, a dream?)

But with what we have

Lift and the others on the wall overlooking the palace

I promise you that

Eshonai on the edge of a chasm, looking grim as she leaps with Blade and Plate for the opposite side and the gemheart there

We're marchin' on

Kaladin strung up in the storm, Syl on his chest trying to push back the worst of the wind

We're marchin' on (we’re marchin’ on)

Shallan bent over books in the library while Jasnah reads nearby, far more elegant (fabrial visible; another peeks out of Shallan’s bag)

For all of the plans we made

Overhead shot: Sadeas’ army leaving

There isn't a flag I'd wave

Dalinar watching them go, surrounded by fighting, jaw set

Don't care where we've been

Kaladin leaps across the chasms ahead of the bridge crew, alight with spear and shield, Syl at his back

I'd sink us to swim

Three-point landing and sweep the legs out from under a Parshendi

We're marchin' on

Kaladin, glowing faintly, spears a Parshendi with one hand and offers Dalinar a hand up with the other

We're marchin' on

Shallan walks on the beach, barefoot, bedraggled, and freezing, grimly determined

We're marchin' on

Dalinar purchases Bridge Four for a gemheart

For those doubts that swirl all around us

Eshonai stands on a cliff with her people behind her, all warforms or, some (including Venli), stormform (red light in eyes). They are ready to fight; she is uncertain, maybe wistful

For those lives that tear at the seams

Szeth the Assassin in White on the verge of falling to his knees, staring at his hands--they are clean, as is the blade he grips so tightly that his knuckles are white.All around him are bloody corpses in a feast hall, some in Shardplate, or with half-Shard shields

We know We're not what we've seen

Venli crouches by Eshonai’s stripped corpse in the chasm, still in stormform, looking up at the voidspren that’s urging her to catch up with the others (Parshendi in warform and workform, carrying Eshonai’s Plate and Blade and other things they’ve looted down here). A small bob of light creeps from Eshonai toward her hand

Oh for this dance we move with each other

Lift baseball-slides through half a dozen guards and officials and between Nale’s own legs, as he reaches furiously to catch her. Windle racing to keep up; she is holding a pancake and going to help her friend who is bleeding out on the floor

There ain't no other step than one foot

Jasnah gets to her feet, perhaps with a hand from a full-size Ivory, on the solid ground of Shadesmar in the sea where she was to have drowned. A few beads of the remains of the ship scatter around her; she is drawing Stormlight to heal her bloody and burnt wounds and she looks directly at the viewer with nothing but determination

Right in front of the other

From behind, wide shot: Jasnah stands straight with Ivory, the two of them looking at the expanse of Shadesmar, somewhat silhouetted by that stylized sun that appears over it in Shallan’s chapter images.

There's so many wars we fought

younger Jasnah, helpless on what remains of the balcony, watches the Assassin in White stab her father through the chest

There's so many things we're not

Kaladin, exhausted, bruised/bloody, and stubborn, leans on his spear, Elhokar bleeding behind him (same pose as Galivar; similar hallway). He faces Moash with Plate and Blade, other fighters behind him, sword slightly lowered but still determined, angry

But with what we have

Baxil’s mistress destroys a painting

I promise you that

Rysn jumps off a fucking giant turtle head

We're marchin' on

Taravangian, advisors at his back, flips through the book that holds the notes on the Design

We're marchin' on (We’re marchin’ on)

“The Knights Radiant have returned” - Kaladin, resplendent

For all of the plans we made

The Parshendi calling the Everstorm

There isn't a flag I'd wave

Szeth flies over the plains to the battle, to Dalinar; intent, weeping, and utterly mad

Don't care where we've been

Eshonai locking blades with Adolin at the edge of the cliff, both unseen within their armor

I'd sink us to swim

With a couple scholars (+Renarin) nearby, Shallan slams her Patternblade into the Oathgate’s keyhole

We're marchin' on

Everyone in the same position as above, but the glorious Urithiru Gate room

We're marchin' on

Zoom out to see the full room: frescos, gems, gates to 9 other major cities (labeled). Renarin notably staring in awe.

We're marchin' on

The whole mountain of Urithiru, above the clouds

Right, right, / right, / right, left

Bridge Four practicing surgebinding / Queen Fen of Thaylenah / women (and Renarin) studying gem-saved notes

Right, right, / right, / right, left

Venli speaking to assorted freed Parsh, telling her “story” / those two nerds ardents excitedly studying the quantum nature of flamespren / Shallan weeping in Wit’s arms

Right, right, right, / we’re marchin' on

Elhokar falls (Kaladin watches; Shallan and Adolin are busy) / Dalinar-Navani wedding kiss

We'll have the days we break

Talenel-at sitting in some hospital room, ragged, face in his hands, mad

And we'll have the scars to prove it

Knife slash through a portrait with a halo. Hammer smashing the bust of a beautiful woman. Shalash attacks a painting with compulsive fury

We'll have the bombs that we saved

Ash kneels in front of Taln in that hospital room, clutching his hands, head bowed lower than his, crying because she can’t ask for forgiveness

But we'll have the heart Not to lose it

A moment later: Taln’s head raised to see her; he cups her chin and lifts her face. Ash is still crying, as is he, just a touch. He is also smiling. She is bewildered. “A thousand years...amazing. They will be prepared.”

For all of the times we've stopped

Dalinar at Odium’s feet, on one knee, bowed. Book burning beside him. Odium’s smile is kind, and does not reach his eyes; Dalinar is shaking, and outlined in red

For all of the things I'm not

Jasnah with her Shardblade raised over Renarin with his Bridge Four coat. On the floor before them splay the images--the left, the Thaylen soldiers fighting Voidbringers, Parshendi, and Amaram’s fighters alike; the right, Dalinar (clearly outlined in red) before Odium [above]. The center, Jasnah with her sword plunged into Renarin’s kneeling back

[music pauses as Dalinar’s dream of Nohadon reaches out of the light--gold at the edges, fading to white at the center. Voiceover: “The most important step...is the next one.”]

You put one foot in front of the other

Dalinar stands, shedding the Thrill. It pools at their feet

We've move like we ain't got no other

Jasnah pulls Renarin across the rooftops

We go where we go we're marchin' on Marchin' on

Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin, and Syl and Pattern and Mayalaran, fighting the Fused before the Oathgate in Shadesmar

There's so many wars we fought

Dalinar unarmed and unarmored, and behind him the flames of the Rift fade into the battle of Thaylen City

There's so many things we're not

Imagined: the first humans, bedraggled and tired, meeting the Dawnsingers, curious and welcoming, in what could only have been Shinovar

But with what we have

Ash and Taln creep through the battle-filled streets, holding hands

I promise you that

Szeth leaves Nale in the sky, choosing Dalinar as his guide to what is right

We're marchin' on

“I am Unity.” (material realm)

We're marchin' on

(cognitive plane [Shadesmar])

We're marchin' on

(spiritual realm)

(We’re marching-- oh) Right, right, right, right, left Right, right, right, right, left Right, right, right (right)

On each “right”, we show a different one of the new(ish) ten(ish), each outlines in stormlight and standing in whatever pose they have as they join Dalinar’s line (or not). The background battle fades instantly to a towering, stylized silhouette of their order’s Herald, who is surrounded (stained glass-esque?) by symbols of that order...and facing away. Kaladin with his Syl-spear for the Windrunners. Elsecaller Jasnah with sword in one hand and flame in the other. Szeth of the Skybreakers in white with a black blade. For the Willshapers, the half-transparent shade of Eshonai has her hands on Venli’s shoulders. Renarin, Truthwatchers, ready to throw a punch and eyes gone pale gold. Edgedancer Lift with her Windle-spoon. Shallan of the Lightweavers with echoes of Radiant and Veil on either side. For the Dustbringers, there is nobody--Ash is to one side, ducking away, and Malata is to the other, arms folded, not participating. The only Herald silhouette facing forward and holding a sword is Taln of the Stonewards, as Taln of the present day cringes. (Ash and Taln visibly similar to their former selves--same hair outline, maybe?) Dalinar, Bondsmith, flattens out Ishar’s shadow with the light of the Perpendicularity he still holds open.

Marchin' on (we're marchin' on)

All of them together, facing Odium

We're marchin' on

Odium and his army - Parsh, Fused, Amaram’s soldiers, thunderclasts...

Right, right, / right, / right, left

Szeth and Lift try to hold Nightblood / Kaladin clashes with corrupted!Amaram / Jasnah reaches up and turns an attacking Fused to crystal without missing a beat in her conversation with Navani

Right, right, / right, / right, left

Lopen looks, dismayed, at his glowing hands, half a second after offering reassurance and accidentally swearing an Oath / Renarin shyly introduces Glys to Jasnah / Shallan’s brothers at her door

Right, right, right, right

Pan across the length of Roshar, pull out to the solar system to glimpse Ashyn and Braize

Marchin' on (oh oh oh)

Taravangian in his Diagram that Odium has turned every which way and set ablaze with golden light. Zoom in: hidden in the corner, written in darkness: Renarin Kholin

#oathbringer #the way of kings #words of radiance #stormlight archive #siri how much would it cost to commission an entire lyricstuck #my fic

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envy555 · 7 years ago

Photo

Kaladin Stormblessed, Shallan Kholin, & Adolin Kholin, rocking the Kholin blues.

(The Alethi is, of course, the First Ideal of the Knights Radiant: “Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.”)

Please preview individually, for better quality!

Suggestions for who/ what to draw next? I’m planning on doing Wit/Hoid, Renarin, Dalinar, and Jasnah (among others) eventually, and want to do an Edgedancer!Adolin training with Lift, but am open to requests.

Miscellaneous art notes beneath the cut.

This was absurdly frustrating because I know exactly how I want them to look in my mind, but had the hardest time putting them on digital paper. This isn’t even close, but still. Likely going to change the designs over time, as I do more SA art.

Huge shoutout to the awesome designer who made this Alethi Font––I was about to hand-draw the First Ideal bits and would have cried over it for hours.

Credit to the Coppermind for all of the very good quality glyphs.

Tried out a new shading technique in Illustrator! I haven’t quite mastered it, but it sure is faster and cleaner than what I was doing before.

Please, if you will, note that Adolin is extra and his buttons are engraved with the Kholin glyph.

Shallan Khoooooooliiiiiiin! Also, let Adolin be a Radiant 2020!

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esseastri · 7 years ago

Text

Megan Reads Oathbringer (part 1)

Me: okay but I don’t remember the back half of WoR, I should really, really finish the reread before starting... Also me: okay, buuuuuuuuuuut................what if I just..............start

[insert evilkermit.jpeg here]

There are a few relevant points of information:

Tags: Megan reads OB and Oathbringer spoilers. (I’ll also have housekeepers on there, like Brandon Sanderson, Stormlight Archive, and Oathbringer, but those first two are the important ones.)

Everything will be under a readmore.

Above the readmore will be the page numbers covered in that liveblog, so you’ll know how far I’ve gotten (and that way, if you’ve read that far you’ll be okay to read the lb).

There's…going to be a lot of swearing? I have learned that I have no control over my language when I get overly emotional and I feel like I’m going to spend a lot of this book overly emotional. I would like to apologize in advance, and while I promise to try to keep my swearing to a minimum, there might be more than a few bad words.

Shameless self-promotion for the previous two liveblogs: WoK and WoR.

I’m pretty sure that’s all the important bits. Enjoy!!

Part One encompasses pages 1-90 (subsequent parts)

*screams quietly into the ether forever*

PROLOGUE

hoooolly shiiiiiiiittt: Eshonai

Please tell me this means we’ll finally learn why the Parshendi killed Gavilar.......

SHE’S SO EXCITED I’M SO SAD I hate knowing what’s happened to her

...the Parshendi...didn’t know about the parshmen? what? the heck?

I’m....baby Esh is so excitable and curious and I.. love her. and I’m so. so sad. that she loses this.

“an indoor privy with running water, a concept she still didn’t understand.” Who does, babe. Who does.

me, every time amaram appears: “fucking asshole. fuck off fckkkk” I just.... hiss like a cat every time his name appears on a page. I hate him. ARGH.

I spelled his name as “aramaram” and had to go correct it I was so upset he was HERE that I forgot how to spell.

“Traitors who had abandoned their gods to be free.” And they FEARED the return of their gods, before stormform and the Everstorm. They feared it--because they were not free... But...stormform isn’t freedom, and their gods are back and....history repeating itself?

Also, the fact that Gavilar took the time to learn her name is very endearing and like... Gavilar was A Good, guys. He tried so hard.

NOOPE NEVERMIND, BAD, ACTUALLY. THAT’S SO SELFISH WHAT THE HECK

“Bring back your evil, destructive, enslaving gods so that we can have our nice, honorable, fighty ones back please.” NO, THAT’S SO DISGUSTING THAT’S SO SELFISH WTH

GAVIILAARRRR. I BELIEVED IN YOU! I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU!! WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU

WAIT, so he was getting the visions before Dalinar? Did we know this already? That makes sense... it’s very Boromir/Faramir, tbh, but like... what, one died, and Honor was like “welp. guess we’ll try his bro”

wait, okay, so ...the black sphere that he gives Szeth...........what. Esh knows what it is--so it’s some kind of spren. But it’s not the angerspren/hatespren that they bond with for stormform--those are red. So what’s...this one? Voidspren? Are there voidspren? Voidspren to create voidbringers...presumably more powerful than stormform.

I AM CONCERNED.

PART ONE

okay, that map tho; after reading Edgedancer, I’m VERY CONCERNED that there’s an Oathgate to Aimia... I don’t need any more 200-cremlings-in-a-trenchcoat popping up out of nowhere, but thanks anyway

it makes sense that this book stats with Dalinar, but HOW! IS! MY! BOY! WHERE! IS! KALADIN!

Dalinar is so polite tho. saying ‘thank you’ to the Stormfather

Also ONLY SIX DAYS???? AAHH

“It had been a hardy, stubborn lot who had grown in this place.” This is Kholinar: it highstorms nine months of the year, and weeps the other three. Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here are even more so. The only upsides are the pets. While other places have...cats or chickens, we have...cremlings.

(Though Lisa made a good point--are there actually cremlings?? or are all cremlings just...bits of Aimians scuttling about like spy bugs?)

“The queen had gone silent.” I...genuinely don’t trust her, and I’m more inclined to believe she’s radio silence out of a need to save her own damn skin than any other reason.

......somehow I never really thought that Odium would be light...

THE WOMAN HE LOVED

YAASS.

(I have priorities)

They’re being cute. It’s been, like, half a page and I’m just over here making big, cooing noises at them being cute. help.

OH SHIT THAT WAS QUICK

THEY FOUND SADEAS ALREADY AND I AM CONCERN

(tho, I mean...it took them six days to find the body, that’s....actually not really quick. but still.)

OH WAIT NO, OKAY, IT TOOK THEM ONE DAY WELL SHIT

oh god

Adolin, bby. pls. don’t.... LISTEN, THE FIC I WROTE ABOUT GUILTSPREN WAS A FIC

HI TEFT I HAVE MISSED YOU BUT ALSO PLS CALM DOWN AAAHHHH

this is page frikkin 37 and I’m already dying

I’M SO SCARED OF WHAT IALAI WILL DO. SHE’S GONNA PIN THIS ON BRIDGE 4 I KNOW IT. SHE’S GONNA TRY AND I’M GONNA SCREAM

WHY IS ADOLIN HERE. KIDDO PLS. DOn’T COME BACK TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME I’M

unrelated, but I can’t stop thinking about baby Eshonai basically damning her people to war and revenge to stop their gods from returning and Venli just like...whipping a godling out her pocket like “nvmd, we’re doing this anyway” and like. fuck Venli, tbh.

Back to current events and:

I love Palona.

“steady Adolin and impenetrable Renarin” HE LOVES HIS SONS SO MUCH I’M CRY

“certainly wouldn’t have gone so far as to kill Sadeas themselves” ABOUT THAT

I love that Urithuru has safety railings. like... throwing shade at every big space opera ever.

I still don’t know how I feel about Lopen growing his arm back...

“Our ultimate goal is the preservation of Roshar” Sorry, bud, Preservation is dead...

and also on a different planet.

AAAWWW SNAP! THIRTY-FOUR YEARS AGO! HERE WE GO!!!!

“He didn’t need Shards to intimidate.” Nah, but I bet they help.

tbqh, it’s really, really weird to think of Dalinar fighting not in Shards.

excuse you, that horse did nothing to deserve that.

heheheheh, so much for your nose, bucko

Gooooddddd, Brandon writes battle so cinematically. I want to film this. Gaaaahhh

of...of course punk!Dalinar’s horse is named Fullnight. How deliciously extra of him.

“I tried to kill you!” “from a distance! Which shows remarkably good judgement!” DALINAR, PLEASE.

Enthusiastic ultra-Gryffindor rambo Dalinar is hilarious

It’s been 50 pages, where’s Kaladin

Sadeas in YELLOW shardplate?? who is he?

Also, ngl, I’m a lil pissed that I still have to deal with Sadeas--even if it’s young, not-quite-so-vile Sadeas. Like......he’s dead! I shouldn’t have to put up with his slimy face anymore!

“What would we do without you?” “Lose.” What an asshole. What a dudebro. I hate how much I love him.

the Thrill concerns me, tbh.

I know that we know it is of Odium, but like. It Concerns me.

THAT WAS QUICK

THE EVERSTORM TURNAROUND??? THAT WAS DISTRESSINGLY QUICK?

I’m sad Dalinar doesn’t get a little spren buddy wandering around with him at all times, because, like. Stormfather. But like. spren buddy.

Now I’m trying to picture the vast and infinite Stormfather just flitting around Dalinar’s head in meetings and making faces at Syl across the table and laughing my ass off.

oh NO not her SAFEHAND

seriously, they. are. so. cute.

“Your stubborn refusal to get seduced is making me question my feminine wiles.” HAAAAHAHA OMG, DARLINGS PLEASE

also, Dalinar, omg, give it up already, bro.

I realize there are like...ecological and climatology implications of the Weepings stopping before they are supposed to, but I can’t help but be glad that Kaladin won’t be suffering for as long as he normally would with the seasonal depression...

WHAT! WAS! THE! BOON! ...unless this is the boon. Unless Dalinar asked for the Nightwatcher to take away the pain of losing his wife and instead she took away his wife... and his punishment is something else.

in which case WHAT! WAS! THE! PUNISHMENT!

“I’d let a confused dishwasher marry us.” I realized belatedly that she meant, like...a person who washes dishes. And not a machine that washes dishes that most people on earth have in their kitchens.

Also, Dalinar and Navani really need to please stop being so adorable, I’m SO HAPPY THEY’RE GETTIN MARRIED AND THE FRIKKIN STORMFATHER IS GONNA OFFICIATE THAT’S HILARIOUS I LOVE THEM

I LOVE THAT THE WEDDING IS LIKE... HIM AND NAVANI AND THE BOYS AND SHALLAN AND A FEW OTHER MINIONS. THIS IS DELIGHTFUL. I LOVE THIS

THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT THIS I DISLIKE

Bridge Four is too important for guard duty! They’re so important! They’ve come so far!!!! I LOVE THEM!!??

she just had a wedding dress just... lying around.

god I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!

...poor Elhokar. “if only we could keep up.” boy has no confidence and no chance to learn it.

NAVANI’S FRIKKIN GLORYSPREN OMG

“What does he remember that I cannot?” Uh...your other wife, my dude. I’m sure this has something to do with how your wife died.

AAHH. HERE HE IS!!!! THE BOY!!!!! MY BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nooooo. no, kaladin please. you didn’t fail. oh god, no, come on. don’t think like that.

I’m

aaahhhhh

“It felt wrong not to bear the symbol of Bridge Four.” AAAHHHHHHH

I’M

!!!!!!!!!

I’m JUST NOT OKAY

aahh, at least he was properly concerned about the Everstorm filling his spheres with...bad stuff? of some kind? I’m super glad that it didn’t, that it doesn’t, but like. At least he was concerned about it!

hello fronds, I love Syl a LOT

also: covered safehand, that’s hilarious. She’s a real grown up, now!

nooooooooooo

it can’t be all dead

they have to have

someone has to have been smart enough to get a large part of the town into shelter

Kaladin, your dad isn’t stupid, he would have. he would have tried.

(this would be way, way more distressing if I hadn’t been spoiled for the fact that Lirin and Hesina are alive...like...I’d probably be crying right now.)

“How often are you going to make me apologize for that?” Pfffft I mean.

HE GREW UP AND THEY DON’T RECOGNIZE HIM AND I’M

AAAHHH

“Are there wounded” and he just GOES because that’s where his dad would be and he just . goes. to his dad.

I’m crying?

THEY’RE CRYING I’M CRYING EVERYONE IS CRYING

THEY THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD AMARAM FUCKING TOLD THEM HE WAS DEAD AND I’M

THEY’RE

“MY SON IS ALIVE” YEAH HE IS AND HE’S AMAZING AND YOU’RE GONNA BE PROUD OF HIM OH

I’M

AAHHHHHH

I really hate Amaram. A lot.

his mom is a good. and she just keeps her hand on his shoulder like protectiveness and like reassurance that he’s still there and I’m. aaaAAAHH

“For now, he just wanted to be here with them.” GOOD. LET THE BOY REST. LET HIM EAT SOUP AND REST.

“The wrong-way highstorm” I mean...not wrong

“They never got to meet Captain Kaladin” aaAAHHH

I HAVE A LOT OF EMOTIONS ABOUT INCARNATIONS OF HUMANS AND I’M

this is a lot

LIRIN OFFERING TO BUY THE WRIT OF SLAVERY IS A LOT I’M JUST

crying

“Perhaps it was time to stop letting the rain dictate his mood. He couldn’t banish the seed of darkness inside him, but Stormfather, he didn’t need to let it rule him either.”

I...have a lot of feelings about Kaladin.

And I have a lot of feelings about how Kaladin and his depression interact and about how he deals with it. And how he’s seen the worst in himself and promised to never let it get that bad again. And how he’s seen that even though it’s a part of himself that he has to keep fighting, keep dealing with, keep understanding, it doesn’t have to be the only thing in him, the only thing in his life, the only part of him that matters. He can have other parts, other important bits of him and his personality. He might always have bad days, but that doesn’t have to be the majority of them. Not if he chooses to be stronger, to try to get better. There’s always going to be depression, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be other things.

It took me a longass time to come to that same realization and I just...am really, really... proud of him? and of myself? and of anyone who has depression who thinks the same way we do? and though I’ve found it to be a smidge disconcerting to have your own personal thought processes spelled out on paper by someone who isn’t you, there’s a comfort in that...I’m not the only one who feels like this, who has these ideas, who makes these decisions about my depression.

Anyway, I really, really love Kaladin and I’m. emotional . and I’m. “He didn’t need to let it rule him either.” No. We don’t. We can deal.

ANYWAY I’M EMOTIONAL ABOUT KALADIN AND IN OTHER NEWS WATER IS WET, FIRE IS HOT, AND THE WORLD IS ROUND.

WAIT. Did Syl.....was she aiming for someone else? “distant yet demanding”. Who else...was she gonna bond with. before Kaladin? My first instinct is Tien, but that...doesn’t fit. One of his men? in his squad? Or before that, Hesina maybe? I’m? ...surely not Lirin...... he’s not. enough.

god, his first thought is that Adolin would be disappointed in fashion heheheheh I love these boys. becoming friends. maybe. hopefully.

KAL PUNCHING ROSHONE IS A++ 100% GRADE A GOOD SHIT

GOD BLESS

AAAAAAHHHHHHH

“That was for my friend Moash” I’M!!!!!!!!!!!! EMOTIONAL!!!! ABOUT MY BOYS!!! AND THEIR FRIENDSHIP!!!!! PERSISTING EVEN THOUGH BAD DECISIONS!!!!

Kaladin’s stubborn refusal to give up on people is. A Lot. EVeRYTHING IS A LOT. THIS IS A LOT

“and for the first time in a long, long while, he was happy with that person.” THAT’S CAUSE YOU’RE A GOOD PERSON THE BEST PERSON AAAHHH

SUMMONING SYL AND “ANY QUESTIONS” AND OHHH MY GOD. that shit’s hot. I’m. hhnnnggggggg

“until he had enough stormlight to fly home.” home. I mean, we knew that “home” wasn’t Hearthstone anymore, but. Dalinar is home. The warcamps, Urithuru. Bridge Four. I...I am so proud of how far Kaladin has come.

“I don’t like the idea of swinging you around, smashing you into things.” “Firstly, I don’t smash into things. I am an elegant and graceful weapon.” HI, I LOVE SYL A LOT

GET IT, LARAL

HECK YE

“That’s a girl I was never going to marry, no matter what happened.” “I like her.” “You would.” I LIKE HER TOO SHE’S STRONG AND CAPABEL AND DON’T NEED NO MAN. GET IT, GIIIRRLL!!!!

I love that Roshar has a Hippocratic oath equivalent. I also have mixed feelings on Lirin’s incredibly strict adherence to his Hippocratic oath equivalent. like..yeah, Do No Harm is one thing. But being self-righteous about it to the point of not wanting your son to fight evil monsters from the void? Take a chill pill, my dude.

NAVANI SPANREEDING HIM PERSONALLY IS A LOT

also, I really have strong feelings about Dalinar generally addressing Kaladin as “soldier” and the responding “Sir.” I know they had a long talk about chain of command, but it’s just. so satisfying that it’s still going.

“Send us a glyph each evening to know you are safe.” GOOD DAD IS WORRIED ABOUT HIS SON AND I’M EMOTIONAL

AAAHHHHH HIS VERY FIRST INSTINCT IS TO HOLD HIS BABY BROTHER I’M!!! KALADIN IS SO GOOD AND LOVING AND WONDERFUL!!!

guys, I don’t know if you know this about me, but I really love Kaladin.

guys, I don’t know if you know this about me, bUT I REALLY LOVE KALADIN.

#op #Megan reads OB #Oathbringer spoilers #Stormlight Archive #Oathbringer #Brandon Sanderson #ladyknightliveblogs #I knoooow I should probs put it on the liveblog blog bUT! All the other Sanderson liveblogs are on this blog and also I'm lazy #so they're going here #and I'll reblog them to the liveblog blog for organization later #it's fine

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nightblink · 7 years ago

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Blink Reads Oathbringer - Chapters 31-32, Interludes I-1 to I-3

Short one this time, but it’s the end of Part One and the Interludes, so I can start the next one off directly at Part Two.

Chapter Thirty-One – Demands of the Storm

Finally we get another Kaladin chapter. I've missed you.

No wonder nobody's heard news out of Revolar for a while now.

[laughs] Again thinking like a soldier, Kaladin. Cities usually aren't so organized as warcamps; they grow in a more organic fashion.

(As ever, Kaladin is proud of the newest of his adoptions.)

There's going to have to be a complete social upheaval one way or another. No more Parshmen, maybe eliminate slavery entirely. That's certainly something you can throw your weight behind, Kal. To take part in a war, though…

I love how Syl is hiding between his collar and hair. Those glorious, thick curls are serving a purpose other than just making him pretty, for once.

A Parshman in warform, and with a strong Rhythm! But not with red eyes – warform isn't one of those associated with Voidspren. Whoop, but there is a red-eyed one, and they're calling that kind/form 'the Fused'. Definitely Odium at work here.

Yep, time to make like the wind and fly.

Syl, let him have the gloryspren! Still, Syl getting jealous-protective of Kaladin omg

Kal, she's not a GPS

Hovering above a city as a storm roars in probably isn't the best place to talk to Syl about ethics, but it definitely needed to be said. For all that she's been with him for quite a while now, she still has a rather limited view of the world, and doesn't always understand the chain of cause-and-effect.

“It's about what you see as right and wrong.” “For once, I'd like my moral code to not come with a list of exceptions at the end.” Thank you Sanderson for giving them time to talk about that part of the bond and Oaths, because that's needed to be discussed for a while now.

Thank goodness he saw the people and got down to help them. It was hinting from the start that they were out in the open and vulnerable to the storm.

OOP, ONE OF THE FUSED

Dark stormlight? Dark stormlight? Will that be fueled by normal highstorm Investiture, or only the Everstorm?

Aaaaand they can fly. Of course they can.

...are you seriously going to argue with the Stormfather to stop the storm itself. I- of course you are. The Kholin Extra(TM) has been rubbing off on you, hasn't it.

Well, that didn't work. You being you, though, you're still going to try and save the ones down below.

!!!! Did. Did you just airbend. This must be one of the unique combination feats of Gravitation+Adhesion – unless it's something that can be accomplished via Gravitation alone. Whatever it was, you managed so save people. Not all of them, but some.

“Just listen to the piece of nature incarnate, okay?” Syl you are a delight.

Chapter Thirty-Two – Company

Tea and shock blankets – at least Palona knows what this girl needs right now.

Oooo, so that's where Renarin knew the name from – possibly in combination with Truthwatcher abilities, but it's good to know that Re-Shephir is part of their actual mythology.

Imagining a human eventually getting warped into that is terrifying. If the Unmade were Splinters of Odium, perhaps they once hosted in humans and eventually changed them like the holders of the Shards.

If the rest of the Unmade are creepy body-horror things, then I'd suspect the cremling-guy from Edgedancer, no matter what he said. That was nightmare fuel.

Let everyone shower you with compliments, Shallan, you deserve it. Bravery is in standing up to things that terrify you.

Wait, is that…?

It is.

Jasnah: [waltzes into Urithiru half a year late with Starbucks] What'd I miss.

Jaaaassssssnaaaaaaaah~

End of Part One

Interlude One – Puuli

Excited for the new storm? You mean the Everstorm? Well, to each their own….

[squints] Are you killing all of this lady's husbands? You are the lighthouse-keeper. Then again, sailing on Rosharan seas is a dangerous business. Especially on the stormlands-end of the continent.

Ooo, this must be in the New Natanatan area. But blue skin was an Aimian trait if I remember correctly, and nothings been noted about your shadow

….”hidden island of the Origin”. Say what now. Mythology or forgotten history, I wonder…

'They'll arrive when the night is darkest.' - And they come to destroy. Could be Voidbringers, could be the rest of the Unmade. Either way, I doubt they're allies.

Interlude Two – Ellista

A monastery! Oh man, please give us a scene of Vorin ardents flipping their shit over the return of the Knights Radiant.

Okay, so it's not about the Radiants, but we've got Arguing Ardents. However, they're arguing in a library. She should have knocked them upside the heads for that.

This poor woman cannot get any peace to simply read!

When in doubt, abandon the populated places entirely. Good choice.

….are you reading a bodice-ripper romance. You are. And you're having the time of your life.

This thing is all overblown purple prose and it's amazing. Good to know that Roshar has a flourishing trade in scandalicious romance novels.

Are ardents even supposed to be allowed stuff this raunchy?

“Important works.” Terribly important. Essential to the future of all Roshar, this reading.

[snorts] Opaque politics? My dear Ellista, perhaps that might be true of Navani, and formerly of Gavilar, but the rest of them? Hah.

These translations the ardents are working on could be the key to information later on, now that we know the libraries of Urithiru are ruined (hopefully not beyond repair, but not holding out hope for that).

HE READ THE ROMANCE TOO. AND THE SEQUEL

“has to choose between a strapping naval officer, a Thaylen banker, and the King's Wit.” ….did Hoid write this. Did Hoid write this dirty romance novel just for the sheer glee of it.

“Sequels always have to be bigger.” Taking a potshot at yourself in your own book, Sanderson? At least you have a good sense of humor about it.

Interlude Three – The Rhythm of the Lost

Venli?! Oh I have a bone to pick with you over how you treated Eshonai last book-

Rhythm of Craving? Oh that's not good. Command Rhythm being related to Appreciation… I'm not sure what to think about that, because on one hand it goes towards emotional manipulation, but on the other it's more of the Kholin “show honor to your men and they shall return it” vibe. It's treading a very, very fine line.

New Voidspren, one that looks like “rolling lightning”. Possibly the same type of spren that transforms them into stormform.

Oooo, Venli is not happy about not being the one giving orders. Did you think that because you spearheaded the plan for the Parshendi change to stormform and the summoning of the Everstom that you'd be elevated to a position of greatness?

[winces] You just wanted to save your people. Terrible choices with terrible consequences, but you felt backed into a corner. Decisions or extinction.

Ah, so 'lesser spren' are used for the form-changes, got is. Perhaps not even sentient ones.

Oh. Oh no. That's Eshonai, but the blade is materialized. That can only mean…

Fuck. Fuck. I really, really wanted you to be alive. Fuck. I'm really distraught over this, give me a moment.

….

[flings open second-story window] ESHONAI DESERVED BETTER!

I'm going to have to write an Eshonai+exile!Adolin swordbros AU myself to rectify this goddamn tragedy on some level.

[deep breath] Okay. Okay. Back to the continuation of canon. Eshonai's dead, Odium-spren Ulim just wanted to find her for the Plate, but Venli… Venli's singing a Rhythm of mourning – an old Rhythm.

Shiiiit, no wonder the Parshendi hate people touching their dead. Mutilating the bodies to look for gemhearts? That's fucking sickening.

YEAH, GO VENLI. SNAP BACK AT THAT ASSHOLE

“the spren of redemption” aaahahahahaha bullshit

Wait, can Voidspren – even just spren in general – sense Shardic influence? How else would Ulim know that the Alethi “stink of Honor”? And would he recognise, say, a Scadrian by the feel of Ruin and Preservation permeating them? Or, better question, the influence of a Shard on human-types transplanted from Yolen, as opposed to humans created by Shards in the image of the Yolenese, like Scadrians? (My theory that Rosharan-humans were created rather than transplanted grows.)

[hums] He didn't deny that “your ancestors” were dead, only said they were in charge. It's not a spren in charge then, but some kind of ancient Voidbringer(s) – perhaps not actually alive, but returned (hah) somehow? Or maybe both, if the Voidbringer(s) is/are bonded to a Voidspren.

Oh, Venli

….you're attracting a spren. A true spren. Ohhhhh……

#oathbringer spoilers #blink reads oathbringer #end of part one: is fabulous #interludes: confusion and hilarity and also fury

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loopy777 · 4 years ago

Note

What is your biggest problems with way of Kings, words of radience, edgedancer and oathrbibger as novels? Any glaring moments you really hated or felt let down by? Any places where you thought tge potential was great, and Brandon just fumbled the ball on excecution(I know I felt immense disappointment with Kaladin and Shallan's discussion in the chasms)?

The only real disappointment for me was Shadesmar. I was probably expecting too much of Sanderson, as even with his wacky, spooky, spiritual stuff he still tends to portray it in a prosaic manner- especially since he already disappointed me with the same thing in the ‘Secret History’ Mistborn novella! But the idea of this secondary spiritual realm that’s a shadow to the physical realm just seems to demand more than “the land and water are reversed” and endless mentions of ‘glass beads.’ Get metaphorical with that stuff, have different characters see or describe it in different ways, or give it funny made-up names! But constantly referring to the magical ‘atoms’ as “glass beads” over and over again in everyone’s POV was boring. And then, even though the realm is populated by all kinds of magical beings, it really wasn’t all that unusual. I’ve seen bad episode of Star Trek that had more alien settings and beings. Mos Eisley felt more exotic and dangerous.

I mean, it’s fine. It works. I’m sure more is going to be done with Shadesmar as a setting. But when Avatar’s Spirit World is weirder, wilder, spookier, and less tangible than a magical shadow-realm in a novel for fantasy-savvy adults, there’s something going wrong.

Other than that, I can’t recall anything that struck me as disappointing, but I do remember there being a few instances where significant story or character developments seemed to have happened “off screen” or between chapters, which annoyed me. I couldn’t name specific examples, as I read the first three books roughly from August through October, so keeping track of little executions is nigh impossible. But considering the size of each of the books and the amount of story crammed into them, it just seems like there’s no excuse for leaving some stuff out when it could be interesting.

Overall, I have a lot of trust in Sanderson as a storyteller. I’m probably not going to be able to evaluate Stormlight Archives until the whole series is done, even when focusing on the individual entries. The dude’s far too meticulous a storyteller, and I feel like anything that does disappoint me would probably just be a deliberate anticlimax in preparation for something more satisfying. Sanderson is far from perfect, as my reaction to Warbreaker shows, but his work has earned enough trust from me that I wouldn’t even begin to criticize until I’ve lined up all my evidence and am ready to make a real fight of it.

As for your own example, (SPOILERS) it’s interesting that you were disappointed with Kaladin and Shallen’s time in the chasm. I got a huge sense of relief from it because it seemed like a perfect setup for them to have a romantic fling and cheat on Adolin. That they got out with just a better understanding of each other, a working truce, and an adventure with a giant crab was a huge storytelling victory, in my perception. I was dreading how that love triangle was going to fall out, all the way up through the third book, and I’m so glad it didn’t end up with Adolin losing his fiance and his best friend.

#thekingofwinterblog

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preservationandruin · 4 years ago

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Rhythm of War Liveblog, Part One Part 2 (Chapters 3-8)

Previous Post Next Post

[to the tune of Things I Bought At Sheetz] Now It’s time for Notes I Took At Work. This is going to be a weird experiment, because I read these chapters while at my job and took extensive notes on my reactions, which I’m now going to try to condense into something coherent.

Navani revels in a successful invention, Shallan encounters a very bad cult, I quote--of all things--Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, A Certain Fucker reappears, Leshwi becomes a character I like, Shallan finds a journal, I digress on Renarin’s abilities, and everyone is rightfully worried about Kaladin. Content warning; discussion of suicide and suicidal tendencies

Alright, we open Chapter Three with Navani’s AIRSHIP, which is a kickass sentence. She’s leaning over the side of the ship, to the distress of one of her fellow scholars who attempts to appeal to Dalinar to get her to stop.

“It’s Navani’s ship, Velat,” Dalinar said from behind, his voice as steady as steel, as immutable as mathematics. She loved his voice. “I think she’d have me thrown off if I tried to prevent her from enjoying this moment.”

This is great both because Dalinar and Navani are great, but also as a contrast to Gavilar saying that Navani doesn’t accomplish anything herself, she just pretends to be an inventor and stays behind other, smarter people. Dalinar says no, this is Navani’s ship, this is her victory. The ship’s base design is one of the chasm bridges; it’s operated on the same principles as spanreeds, a kind of sympathetic link where you link two fabrials and whatever happens to one, happens to the other. Just augmented with aluminum and a LOT of pulleys and hard work.

My notes also say “Eat Shit Gavilar” which i think is just, a general note.

Anyway she also wishes that Elhokar was there because he loved being up high and also watching her draw...so now I’m feeling emotions, and if that wasn’t enough, I get hit in the feelings again because the name of the ship is the Fourth Bridge, after Bridge Four because of the time they saved Dalinar and Adolin at the tower, and it not only has the Bridge Four glyph inlaid but the original bridge inlaid.

We see Dalinar and Lirin interact (my notes call this a “Dad convention”) --Lirin, of course because he’s Kaladin’s father, doesn’t really defer to Dalinar at all but does see the potential of this platform as a movable hospital; he’s discomfited by the reminder that Edgedancers are usually used for that now. Lirin really is a practical man who doesn’t believe in heroes or hero stories, which is unfortunate because they’re coming to life all around him. Also Dalinar calls him Lirin Stormblessed which is pretty funny because Lirin is Not Having It.

Also, we get this great line from Navani about Lirin and Kaladin:

However, as she stepped up beside Dalinar, she caught Lirin’s eyes--and the familial connection became more obvious. That same quiet intensity, that same faintly judgmental gaze that seemed to know too much about you. In that moment she saw two men with the same soul, for all their physical differences.

This is really interesting in light of how Kaladin and Lirin are at the moment arguing; they both are at their core very driven, caring people who want the best for their community, but they are at odds for the best way to achieve that in part because they’ve had such different experiences; Kaladin’s life hasn’t let him be the surgeon Lirin is.

For more changes in the year since we last met these characters, Dalinar has learned how to recharge stormlight and open perpendicularities at will, which essentially makes him a portable battery for the Radiants. That’s super useful. Navani likes observing the process, hoping that somewhere in it is a key to how Urithiru functions; she knows that it used to be powered by the Sibling, the third god-spren of Roshar, but after the Recreance the Sibling either died or fell so asleep the spren treat it as having died.

That’s interesting; the Sibling has been something I’ve been wondering about a lot, and confirmation that it was tied to Urithiru seems to preclude it being a godspren of Odium like I’d thought for a bit (and in any case, Odium has the Unmade and doesn’t seem the time to fragment himself into a godspren). Another spren of Honor or Cultivation? Or perhaps a spren of both? More importantly, if it really is dead, is there still a way to revive Urithiru? Last book talked about possibly recruiting Sja-anat; if we do, could she serve as an alternate power source for the tower?

We also get the Mink, the Herdazian general, slipping up on Dalinar and Navani without them noticing and also calling Dalinar the fuck out for the many atrocities that his armies and nation had unleashed on the Herdazians, which Dalinar can’t really refute. I like this guy, honestly; I’m not sure what’s up with him, if he’s just really good at sneaking around or if he has something Up With Him, but I like him.

Back with the Three (Shallan/Radiant/Veil), they wake up to find themselves in the chasms with an EXTREMELY melodramatic cult. They’re looking for proof Ialai is now running the Hypocrites Association--sorry, the Sons of Honor; Radiant refuses to move against Ialai without proof, even though Shallan and Veil both kinda wish Adolin had killed her at the same time as Sadeas and saved everyone some trouble. Anyway, the Hypocrites association wear deep, fancy hoods that leads to a great Shallan thought:

Shallan had a fleeting thought, wondering at the seamstress they’d hired to do all this work. What had they told her? “Yes, we want twenty identical, mysterious robes, sewn with ancient arcane symbols. They’re for...parties.”

They claim both to have guided the return of the Radiants and to be overthrowing Dalinar, which is hilarious because Dalinar is a Radiant so the only real extrapolation here is that, in the fantasy where they’re right about any of this, they brought the radiants back and lost control of the situation immediately and now are recruiting random strangers to try to help rein it back in. Which is still not a good look.

Oh and also they claim to be “something greater” than the Radiants, and I really doubt they’re the Heralds, so everything they say is horseshit, as is proven a second later when they test if Shallan is wearing an illusion with a device she herself sold them at an exorbitant price. And then claiming that Radiants can’t tell untrue oaths, right in front of Shallan, who is bonded to a liespren.

They’re just a very bad cult.

Also they say Ialai is the true queen, which raises many questions to me about the line of succession that gives them THAT math, especially with Gavinor alive and there. Like, somehow Sadeas’s widow gets priority over the last king’s living child? I know they’re just a stupid cult but guys, that’s not how lines of succession work in monarchies.

Anyway, Shallan hears them say that they have a mole in Dalinar’s inner circle--bad--and goes off-script, taking control to say she’s not who they think she is, and we cut back to Kaladin for the next chapter, which is called Broken Spears which prompted my note of “I don’t trust like that.” And then instantly I started laughing because of this quote:

[The windrunners] hung in the air like no skyeel ever could: motionless, equidistant.

This is not a particularly funny line unless you, like me, have never been able to forget a line from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:

“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.”

So there’s that.

Kaladin has apparently fought with Leshwi before at this point (she is, iirc, the Fused who was one of the main points of contact for Moash during his arc in Oathbringer); last time, Rock’s daughter Cord managed to shoot her down. The Windrunners, like the Edgedancers, have grown in number; there are about 50 knights, now, and five times that in squires; the problem is that there aren’t enough willing honorspren to bond. Kaladin mentions that “almost all” of Bridge Four had bonded honorspren and that he knew one honorspren who was willing but unbonded, all of which leads me to believe that Rock hasn’t sworn the Oaths yet.

Meanwhile, these Fused--the Heavenly Ones--prefer one on one battles, as Kaladin noted in earlier chapters, so the Windrunners do the same; as long as they do this, the Heavenly Ones will keep to the ideals of honorable combat and will not gang up on the Windrunners. Again, it shows that they are both the orders that deal with Honorspren, even if the Heavenly Ones deal with...void-honorspren, I guess.

Also, it’s another nod to the idea of if there can be such a thing as honorable combat in a war. Both the Heavenly Ones and the Windrunners are trying for it, clearly, but is that sustainable?

Leshwi is in fact there, with a very cool aluminum-edged sword that can absorb stormlight into a gem at the hilt. She, along with the rest of the Fused and apparently the Heralds (Shalash and Taln are both in Urithiru), are stunned by the Fourth Bridge; fuck yeah, Navani and her team. She’s so cool, guys, I love Navani. Also, everyone is worried about Kaladin.

Shallan, meanwhile, is ad-libbing having even more information, which leads to a hilarious moment of her being accused of treason by a member of the cult who are trying to overthrow the current queen, so...there’s a reason I’m calling them the Hypocrites Association, alright? Anyway, Adolin decides it’s time to attack, and Radiant and Shallan manage to bluff their way into being taken along to the hideout as the Hypocrites Association retreats.

With Kaladin again, we get that the Fused see him as a particular challenge they enjoy fighting, although Leshwi always has first dibs; he fights another Fused and manages to disarm him, but decides not to kill him because killing him is pointless. Also, the teleporting fucker comes back, and yes, that is what I’m calling him until further notice.

Something happened in Aimia that led to Cord getting a set of shardplate. Is this the Dawnshard novel? Is that what happened in Aimia? I’m going to read it next regardless but now I’m curious about what happened on the Radiant expedition to Aimia.

So it turns out that the Hypocrites Association has a secret passage into and out of the chasms with a hidden door, which was probably a bolthole for escape that Sadeas put in early during the war at the Shattered Plains. His keep is also noted by Veil to be fortresslike; she notes that he was a cunning man, not just the blowhard that Shallan had taken him for. Ialai is now the sole remaining leader of the dissident Alethi army; while Radiant wants evidence against her that can have her be taken in, Veil is here just to assassinate her and have done with it.

And honestly there is a nice symmetry in Adolin killing Sadeas and Shallan/the Three killing Ialai.

Anyway, we go back to Kaladin as Leshwi fights Sigzil now; she manages to spear him through the chest, and I swear to god if any of the original Bridgemen actually die, I’m going to kick Brandon Sanderson’s ass. Those are my BOYS. In any case, Leshwi doesn’t kill Sigzil, because Kaladin spared one of the Fused earlier--honor in combat, again. There’s definitely a whole essay I could discuss about this opening few chapters and the idea of if continuing a fight is the right thing to do and if that fight can be continued in a way that is moral, but I don’t have the time for that, I’m trying to do NaNoWriMo and read this book.

I’ll shelve it along with the Oathbringer and the idea of personal responsibility essay.

We go back to Navani and get another real sense of how well she knows her team; she knows the personal tics and oddities of all the ardents and scholars who are helping her on the Fourth Bridge, which is nice to see. We also get that Renarin is here, distracting crying children by having Glys form a ball of light, and Navani has this observation:

Renarin claimed the spren [Glys] was trustworthy, but something was odd about his powers. They had managed to recruit several standard Truthwatchers--and they could create illusions like Shallan. Renarin couldn’t do that. He could only summon lights, and they did strange, unnatural things sometimes...

Really excited to see how Renarin’s powers develop similarly to or different from standard Truthwatchers; I agree that Glys is probably trustworthy because Renarin is the best judge of that at the moment and also because “the corrupted spren turns out to be evil” isn’t a very interesting plot development compared to “there can be good corrupted spren”

And then I got yanked forcibly off-topic because guess who fucking showed up. Moash decided to show his backstabbing, treacherous little face again, wearing--of all things--a uniform cut exactly like Bridge Four’s but in black rather than blue, which is just a stupendous dick move. Navani is the one who sees him, too, and we get a sharp reminder that he murdered her son.

Kaladin doesn’t hear the alarm that Navani raises, though, because he’s busy fighting Leshwi, something he seems to genuinely enjoy as a test of his skills. He pushes his home-field advantage here, managing to distract Leshwi to the point that they both seriously injure the other; Kaladin is grinning throughout, which is actually somewhat disturbing. To me it reads like Kaladin’s stopped caring about his own life in favor of trying to help others at any cost, but I’m not sure if that’ll play through as an accurate read.

In any case, someone set Roshone’s house on fire, and the teleporting fucker is there and actively attacking civilians. Leshwi is pissed off to see this and gestures for Kaladin to go and deal with that rather than continuing their fight; at this point, I really started loving Leshwi as a character. I’m a sucker for a good principled antagonist lady, they’re just a good trope.

Anyway, we get to Chapter Seven. Navani’s epigraph notes that zinc makes the spren in fabrials more active, while brass quiets them. So...you could say...that brass soothes them...while zinc...makes them riot....

Anyway, back to Ialai, Shallan notes that she seems extremely worn and tired, and she claims to support Gavinor to the throne--with herself as regent, of course. She and Shallan proceed to have an entire conversation in wine metaphors, talking about who they are working with or for, and Ialai assumes that the Ghostbloods sent the Three to kill her, claiming they want the Sons of Honor out of the way and will send her after Restares next. Veil instantly switches her vote to not killing Ialai bc she doesn’t like to be manipulated, and Adolin kicks down the door.

Ialai tells Shallan to search her rooms for “the rarest vintage” before the Ghostbloods can, and then--before she can even leave the building--she dies of poisoning, implying there’s a mole somewhere in Adolin and Shallan’s people. That’s not great, and the Ghostbloods aren’t fucking around in the slightest with her.

Meanwhile, with Kaladin, the teleporting fucker took Godeke--the one named Edgedancer here other than Lift--hostage to lure Kaladin inside, where he uses a strange, void-fabrial to drain Surgebinder powers in the room. And then makes a critical error in thinking that that will be enough:

The Fused laughed and spoke in Alethi. “Radiants! You rely too much on your powers. Without them, what are you? A peasant child with no real training in the art of warfare or--” Kaladin slammed himself against the soldier to the right.

Oh you poor idiots, Kaladin was a prodigy with the spear LONG before he was a Windrunner, went most of his army career without bonding Syl, and--crucially--one of you is carrying a physical spear. Checkmate, assholes. Kaladin quickly beats most of the ones there, including killing the teleporting fucker before he can teleport again, and lets the last one go--of course--before helping Lift get Godeke out and telling her to get the void fabrial to Navani.

Meanwhile, he’s going to go make sure Roshone is alright, where I have the very prescient note of “I bet actual money Moash is killing him as we speak.”

Ialai’s probable method of death was blackbane poison in her bloodstream; one of Shallans’ people examines the body for it, while Shallan goes to search ialai’s rooms.

Another epigraph note, this time about bronze and heliodor being used to make warning fabrials. Scadrial really was just a primer on the uses of various metals with investiture, huh?

Meanwhile, Kaladin finds the prisoners below the manor killed with a shardblade, and spins around to find Moash slitting Roshone’s throat before making what I called, in a late-night worktime daze, “just a series of rat bastard moves. Hate that guy. Just honestly hate that guy.”

Specifically, he surrenders so that Kal cannot keep attacking him--because Kal’s a good person--just after taunting him for wanting to rescue someone.

Back with Shallan, Veil is pushing her again to continue remembering their past, but she still resists; she finds a rare Shin wine in Ialai’s store, before using that to find a pattern on the floor of old, shadowyears-era glyphs with maps of the ten Epoch Kingdoms, under one of which is a notebook of Ialai’s; she tucks it in her safepouch, and we go back to Kaladin.

I really think the arc for Kaladin in this book is going to be accepting that he can’t save everyone, particularly from themselves, because he pauses and remembers how Moash had been a friend, but even more than that, he had been Bridge Four--someone that Kaladin had sworn to protect, and he’d failed:

Kaladin had failed Moash. As soundly as he’d failed Dunny, Mart, and Jaks. And of them all, losing Moash hurt the most. Because in those callous eyes, Kaladin saw himself.

Kaladin can’t keep blaming himself for Moash’s choices, because Moash chose to do this, and was given ways out, and didn’t take them. It’s not Kaladin’s fault, and believing that it is is going to get Kaladin killed.

And then, Moash winds up and delivers a grade-A Odium-powered Breaking Speech:

"They're going to die, you know," Moash said softly. "Everyone you love, everyone you think you can protect. They're all going to die anyway. There's nothing you can do about it." [...] "Do you remember the chasm, Kal?" Moash whispered. "In the rain that night? Standing there, looking down into the darkness, knowing it was your sole release? You knew it hen. You try to pretend you've forgotten. But you know. As sure as the storms will come. As sure as every lighteyes will lie. There is only one answer. One path. One result. [...] I've found the better way," Moash said. "I feel no guilt. I've given it away, and in so doing became the person I always could have become--if I hadn't been restrained. I can take away the pain, Kal. Isn't that what you want? An end to your suffering?”

Odium’s deal all over again--he will take away your pain and your responsibility for your actions, but the price for that is your integrity and your honor. It’s so insidious, especially because Moash is exploiting the fact that Kaladin was suicidal to play into the idea of life being hopeless--he’s implying that Kaladin’s suicidal impulses were right and then offering another way out. It’s so, so so so awful, and Kaladin can’t even bring himself to fight it, because it’s coming from an unarmed man and it’s targeted so directly at him.

“The answer is to stop existing, Kal. You’ve always known it, haven’t you?” Kaladin blinked away tears, and the deepest part of him--the little boy who hated the rain and the darkness--withdrew into his soul and curled up. Because...he did want to stop hurting.

He wanted it so badly.

Ugh, Moash’s whole thing here is just seeding that suicidality back into Kaladin--because frankly, most of the time? When someone is suicidal, in my (admittedly limited and personal) experience? What they genuinely want isn’t to die--they just want not to hurt anymore, and they see that as the only way.

Light exploded into the room. Clean and white, like the light of the brightest diamond. The light of the sun. A brilliant, concentrated purity. Moash growled, spinning around, shading his eyes against the source of the light--which came from the doorway. The figure behind it wasn’t visible as anything more than a shadow. Moash shied away from the light--but a version of him, transparent and filmy, broke off and stepped toward the light instead. Like an afterimage. In it, Kaladin saw the same Moash--but somehow standing taller, wearing a brilliant blue uniform. This one raised a hand, confident, and although Kaladin couldn’t see them, he knew people gathered behind this Moash. Protected. Safe. The image of Moash burst alight as a Shardspear formed in his hands.

FUCK YEAH, RENARIN.

I’m gonna end this section by just discussing what happened here, because there’s a lot to unpack there. We’ve seen Shallan use her illusions to create versions of people who they could be, but this isn’t doing that--if you look at the cause and effect, it’s not that Renarin created this illusory Moash, but more that the light Renarin created called forth that Moash from this one.

More than anything, it reminds me of the effects of Gold Allomancy--creating a past version of the self, splitting the self into who you are and who you were, or who you are and who you could have been. This is not a version of Moash that could exist. He’s burned too many bridges and killed too many people in front of their infant children for that to happen.

But it could have been Moash. It’s not calling forth the truth, really, it’s showing an alternate path. It’s strange and I can’t wait to see it explored more, and it shakes Moash to his core--because of course it does. Moash’s entire speech was saying “there are only two ways out, dying and giving in to Odium,” and Renarin’s light showed that that was a stark fucking lie. There’s the third choice of deciding to stand up and protect people anyway, and it was a choice Moash could have taken, and that kills him. It eats him up inside; it’s the pain that Odium can’t fully take away.

As Kaladin said to Amaram: if what Odium says is true, if what you claim is true, than why do you still hurt?

#fuck yeah bridge four #rowliveblog #row spoilers #navani kholin protection squad #kaladin has a saving people thing #fuck moash #renarin kholin kicks ass #leshwi is unfortunately VERY cool

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preservationandruin · 7 years ago

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Oathbringer Liveblog, Part Five: Chapters 119-120

I know these are only covering a few chapters at a time, but listen. Its the end of a Sanderson book. Literally everything is happening all the time.

Dalinar tells god to fuck off, Ultimate Unity Is Achieved (Temporarily), Radiants Do Cool Shit Constantly, Adolin learns the name of an old friend, Amaram Vored A Rock And You Can Guess How That Went For Him, and--as always--FUCK YEAH, BRIDGE FOUR.

The epigraphs change, to the postscript of The Way of Kings. The chapter is called Unity.

“Dalinar? What is this?” “You cannot have my pain.” “Dalinar--” Dalinar forced himself to his feet. “You. Cannot. Have. My. Pain.” “Be sensible.” “I killed those children,” Dalinar said. “No, it--” “I burned the people of Rathalas.” “I was there, influencing you--” “YOU CANNOT HAVE MY PAIN!” Dalinar bellowed, stepping toward Odium. The god frowned.

Dalinar is LITERALLY GIVING OFF GLORYSPREN. Amaram has to shield his SHITTY RED EYES from it.

“I did kill the people of Rathalas,” Dalinar shouted. “You might have been there, but I made the choice. I decided!” He stilled. “I killed her. It hurts so much, but I did it. I accept that. You cannot have her. You cannot take her from me again.”

YEAH! SHUT THE FUCK UP, RAYSE. YOU DIDN’T KNOW DALINAR KHOLIN LIKE YOU THOUGHT YOU DID.

“Journey before destination,” Dalinar said. “it cannot be a journey if it doesn’t have a beginning.” A thunderclap sounded in his mind. Suddenly, awareness poured back into him. The Stormfather, distant, feeling frightened--but also surprised. Dalinar? “I will take responsibility for what I’ve done,” Dalinar whispered. “If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.”

I LOVE DALINAR SO MUCH.

Renarin and Jasnah are sprinting through the ward, Renarin struggling to keep up. An entire stream of gloryspren flows by them.

“I know what you are,” Jasnah said. “You’re my cousin. Family, Renarin. Hold my hand. Run with me.”

And they head down, down to the glowing light.

And with all the gloryspren glowing around him, Dalinar notices--Odium looks small.

Syl looks over to the sea of beads. She pulls Kaladin tight.

“Maybe you don’t have to save anyone, Kaladin. Maybe it’s time for someone to save you.”

Dalinar reaches through the worlds. He reaches into the spiritual realm. And he hears Evi’s voice, forgiving him. Venli asks what he is.

He says he’s Unity.

And he fucking combines all three realms into one holy FUCK, Dalinar.

OH MY GOD, HE OPENED HONOR’S PERPENDICULARITY. THAT’S WHAT IT IS. THAT--IT ALL MAKES SENSE. ONLY DALINAR HAS THE REMNANTS OF HONOR’S POWER. ONLY HE COULD DO THIS.

UNITE THEM. PEOPLE, YES, BUT ALSO THE REALMS. FUCK!

Taln grips onto Ash’s hand. And he says her name.

“How long?” He asked. “Taln,” She gripped his hand in both of hers. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

He goes outside, and sees Thaylen City. The wall, the soldiers in breastplates and chain.

And he thanks Ash. Because , in leaving him, they gave humanity four thousand years of progress. She begs him to hate her. He doesn’t.

Teft gasps. His spren asks him--can he feel the words? He says he’s broken. And...he swears the second ideal, in the most heartwrenching form:

“I will protect those I hate. Even...even if the one I hate most...is...myself.”

Renarin and Jasnah reach the last level of the city. Renarin warns Jasnah about Amaram’s soldiers--and she runs straight towards them and wrecks them, soulcasting people and swiping with a Shardblade. Fuck yeah, Jasnah!

And then he looks up, and sees a column of light piercing the sky.

Navani leans into the light, laughing like a fool, gloryspren flying around her, brushing her hair.

“No!” Odium screamed. He stepped forward. “No, we killed you. WE KILLED YOU.”

And Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin split out of the pillar of light, just as Amaram was about to fight Dalinar. The explosion of Stormlight from Dalinar also sated Nightblood, meaning Lift and Szeth are alright, although their skin is stained-grey from Nightblood’s hunger.

Dalinar realizes--Elhokar is not coming through the column of light. He grieves, for a moment. He accepts that grief. And he stands up. And he does better.

Kaladin Stormblessed stepped up beside Dalinar before the rubble of the wall, and Shallan Davar stood on the other side. Jasnah emerged from the city and surveyed the scene with a critical air, while Renarin popped out behind her, then cried out and ran for Adolin. He grabbed his older brother in an embrace, then gasped. Adolin was wounded? Good lad, Dalinar thought as Renarin immediately set to healing his brother. Two more people crossed the battlefield. Lift he had anticipated. But the assassin? Szeth scooped the silvery sheath off the sword and slammed his black shardblade into it, before stepping up to join Dalinar. Skybreaker, Dalinar thought, counting them off. Edgedancer. That was seven. He would have expected three more. There, the Stormfather said. Behind your niece. Two more people appeared in the shadow of the wall. A large, powerful man with an impressive physique, and a woman with long, dark hair. Their dark skin marked them as Makabaki, perhaps Azish, but their eyes were wrong.

The heralds, the Radiants--Dalinar did unite them. Odium is gone, fled into nothing. Dalinar is thinking--you know, there should be one more--but oh well. Stormy notes that the last might not have been found yet.

Oh no, Dalinar’s watch got broken! He starts sending out orders. Renarin, to the Oathgate--and to stop the thunderclast from destroying it, and opening the portal so reinforcements can come.

Shallan needs to lightweave an army--the Thrill will make the men easier to distract. Jasnah is holding the giant fucking hold in the wall--THAT’S THE COVER OF THE BOOK--Kaladin is guarding Dalinar. And settling a score with Amaram. Lift and Szeth are getting that FUCKING RUBY--although Lift needs food.

Dalinar heads toward the water, to try to deal with the Thrill.

Kaladin, of course, shoots into the sky immediately. Of course, he can’t stop being down on himself, because he’s Kaladin. Still. he does get to fight Amaram.

...who immediately falls to his knees. And just when I think this will be a very, very boring fight--Kaladin notices that Amaram is coughing. Like he’d just...swallowed...something....

Over to Adolin, who is completely healed. His first complaint, when Shallan asks how he’s doing, is that he really liked this jacket!

...Oh. She made an illusory version of him that was a windrunner. Given his self-esteem issues and feeling inadequate compared to Kaladin, that...can’t be great.

He summons his shardblade--braces for a scream, although there is none--says he’s sorry, thanks her, and goes into battle.

Lift and Szeth head off to try to get that GODDAMN ruby, Nightblood humming all the way. And Amaram gets up and INSTANTLY makes me furious again:

Those red eyes cast a crimson glow through the helm’s slit. “You should thank me, boy,”

SOMEHOW Amaram has decided that he is the SOLE EVENT that FORGED KALADIN, that MADE HIM INTO THE MAN HE IS NOW. Bull fucking shit. That same self-important assholery that makes Amaram so hateable is coming through again.

And he’s dual-wielding Shardblades, of course. because why not. Syl is just like “don’t worry, he’s only human!” and that’s when Yelig-nar’s smoke starts to envelop him.

Dalinar is heading towards the Thrill. He says “hello, old friend,” and then he walks into it.

Shallan pours out stormlight, creating every person she’s ever sketched. Pattern is humming, louder and louder. All of her drawings--everyone she’s Connected to, because that’s what her drawing is. Her father and mother step from the illusion, and Shallan freezes and starts to fail--

--and then Veil takes her left hand, and Radiant in garnet Shardplate takes her right. Others try to crawl up--but no. That’s enough. They retreat into Stormlight, and hundreds and hundreds more soldiers surge up from the light.

Adolin sees Jasnah basically toss men around like toys and is like, alright, Jasnah doesn’t need help. He runs off to help Queen Fen and her husband.

Jasnah, meanwhile, is abusing the closeness of the three realms to make her Soulcasting much, much easier.

Lift swears as the Fused with the ruby takes it into the sky, and Nightblood wants her to teach him swear words.

LET! NIGHTBLOOD! SAY! FUCK!

Szeth takes to the air and takes her down, grabbing the ruby--and then three more Fused head toward him. Whoops.

Back over to Adolin, who’s met up with Navani! She asks about Elhokar--Adolin says he’s sorry, and holds her while she cries.

Jasnah mends the entire breach in the wall with her Soulcasting. And then just dusts her hands off. Adolin starts working on putting a stable defense together. And Adolin heads off to help the soldiers fighting one of the thunderclasts.

Back to the Kaladin vs Amaram duel! Amaram is fighting, dual-wielding swords--the one bought with the blood of Kaladin’s men, the other given as payment for Bridgeman lives. A crystal just fucking SPROUTED FROM HIS ELBOW. Kal’s also running interference for Dalinar from the other Fused, too.

It’s actually really handy for the Radiants that the thunderclast tore the Gem Reserve asunder--because now there are all these infused Gemstones all over the battlefield. Nice.

Oh, shit, Amaram has pulled out one of those Shardbows.

Amaram stood near his horse, where he’d unhooked a massive Shardbow that used arrows as thick as a spear’s haft. Amaram raised it to loose again, and a line of crystals jutted out along his arm, cracking his Shardplate. Storms, what was happening to that man?

He sold his soul for power, and now it’s taken his body, too. Kal dives Amaram, summoning Syl as a short spear--how appropriate--and charges Amaram.

Dalinar is in the thrill, and it’s happy to see him. I guess Nergaoul, despite being “mindless,” apparently, can still recognize people.

He had imagined it as some evil force, malignant and insidious, like Odium or Sadeas.

ODIUM OR SADEAS. I love how those two are put on the same level here.

Nergaoul remembers the times that the Thrill receded from Dalinar as times it was abandoned. Oh, Nergaoul. What was it, I wonder, before Odium grabbed it and twisted it?

Jasnah, meanwhile, cuts through a Fused’s head without even turning to look at it. She says she’s gonna do her best to stop Shallan from getting herself killed, given the rate at which Shallan is eating through Stormlight.

Lift and Szeth (and Nightblood) are just a great comic dynamic, especially now Lift can hear Nightblood. Lift has an idea for how to steal the ruby.

Shallan is still holding onto Veil and Radiant, and she’s burning herself out. Somehow, she’s managed to make her illusions actually fight, a little. She thinks she might be using Soulcasting as well as Lightweaving. She’s getting drawn more and more into it--

And then someone--probably Lift--asks if she could, uh, stop hugging herself for a minute to help.

Back to Kal v Amaram! Amaram is still talking like himself--this weird hybrid-monster kept the most monstrous part of Amaram, his mind.

FUCK, whatever Amaram is now can change stone into liquid. He traps Kaladin’s feet and snaps both of his ankles--fuck. And then he starts gliding across the ground.

is that...abrasion and friction? Does Yelig-nar mimic dustbringer powers? I don’t know. Kaladin chucks a rock at a Fused getting too close to Dalinar, and throws another rock at Amaram’s horse to get the Shardbow away, too.

Well, he’s fought people in Shardplate before. Syl suggests he try stabbing Amaram in the face as well.

And then Kal is up against a Fused and Amaram. Fuck.

Back over to Adolin! He is looking up at the thunderclast, summoning his Blade.

He felt something. A stirring on the wind. “You want to fight it, don’t you?” Adolin asked. “It reminds you of when you were alive.” Something tickled his mind, very faint, like a sigh. A single word: Mayalaran. A...name? “Right, Maya,” Adolin said. “Let’s bring that thing down.”

SHE TOLD HIM HER NAME. AHHHHHHHHHH IM SO GLAD THAT THIS IS HAPPENING IM SO GLAD THAT ADOLIN’S KINDNESS HAS RESULTS IM SO GLAD THAT, EVEN IN A SMALL WAY, MAYALARAN GETS TO DO THINGS THAT SHE WANTS AND CONVEY HER EMOTIONS, I’M SO HAPPY

Adolin finds a small boy huddled in the house, and gets him out of there, trying to distract the thunderclast, jumping through windows and running.

A hand in Shardplate reached out of a building nearby, grabbed Adolin, and pulled him inside.

WHAT

Back to Dalinar. He talks to the thrill, accepting what he was. Thanking it for giving him strength, sometimes--and it makes a happy sound, it crowds closer to him. Nergaoul almost reminds me of an animal of some sort, reacting to someone being nice to it. Dalinar admits--he understands Nergaoul.

Venli is creeping away, feeling sick, the rhythms going crazy in her, fighting. She manages to grab onto one. The Rhythm of the Lost. The only one of the old rhythms she heard. Timbre thrums to the same rhythm, vibrating through Venli.

Lost. What had Venli lost? Venli missed being someone who cared about something other than power. Knowledge, favoritism, forms, wealth--it was all the same to her. Where had she gone wrong? Timbre pulsed. Venli dropped to her knees. Cold stone reflected lightning from above, red and garish.

Her eyes aren’t red at all. And she starts. She starts swearing the words. She gets almost through them--to Journey--and then a Fused crashes into her. But Timbre isn’t in her pouch.

Instead, she’s in her gemheart. She’s keeping the Voidspren in there captive. Venli storms into the cabin of the ship, grabs a sphere. Ruby, glowing.

She finishes swearing the first Ideal. Odium, you thought you killed the problem sister. But by doing that, you made the other one a problem too.

Fortunately, the dude who grabbed Adolin was one of the Thaylen Shardbearers. They are teaming up, now--Adolin can hit, while the man--Hrdalm--has Plate and can take hits. Unfortunately, the Fused pounce for Hrdalm.

And Adolin throws his Shardblade to kill one of the fused. “Alright, Maya. We’ve practiced this.”

Unfortunately, he’s cornered now with the thunderclast. He summons Maya back, hits again--but it flicks him against a wall, and he definitely broke a rib. He starts counting again.

AND MAYA COMES ON SEVEN, BECAUSE HE NEEDS HER. AHHHH.

Maya’s also started bugging him in his mind--he gets knocked through a roof and is picking himself up, and she’s brushing against his mind to do it faster.

Fortunately, before Adolin does anything else stupid, Renarin runs up. He reminds Adolin that, uh, he can’t heal and HAS NO ARMOR and then charges the thunderclast. Renarin’s healing is so fast that, apparently, being crushed can’t slow him down for very long.

Adolin gives Maya to Hrdalm so that he can use her, and Hrdalm’s response is great in respect to their various religions:

“Great Honor in you, Prince Adolin,” he said. “Great Passion in me at this aid.”

Szeth notes that the Fused don’t expect him to have trained, when learning to use the Honorblade, with all of the Surges. And he and Lift pull a switch--one pouch with a fake gemstone, the other with the real one. With the help of Shallan and an illusory rock, of course.

I can’t believe the Fused thought they could out-steal Lift.

Szeth notes that the closer he gets to Nergaoul/the mist, the louder the whispers in his head become. And Lift goes into the mist to help Dalinar.

Amaram is screaming in pain. Kaladin’s fighting the other Fused and doing his level best not to let it distract him.

Well, there are amethysts growing out of his face, I think that might be part of why he’s screaming. He’s leaving flaming tracks--that seems to support my claim about Yelig-nar imitating Dustbringers’ powers. Dalinar is in trouble--meanwhile, Amaram is hiking off to get his fucking bow.

There’s something weirdly funny about this human-parshman hybrid screaming in pain, and then his opponent flies off and he’s just like. welp. gotta go get my bow. Oh well.

Oh, shit, Amaram can superjump. Not sure what’s letting him do that, but I think a good bet would be “Yelig-nar, obviously.”

Shit, he can do Lashings too. Clearly, paying attention to which surges he’s using isn’t going to do me much good.

Also, for fuck’s sake, Amaram still is going on about honor:

Amaram grinned. “Odium promised me something grand, and that promise has been kept. With honor.” “You still pretend to speak of honor?” “Everything I do is for honor.” Amaram swept with a single Blade, making Kaladin dodge. “It was honor that drove me to seek the return of the Heralds, of powers, and our god.” “So you could join the other side?”

Amaram admits that he hurt, after he killed Kaladin’s men--but then he realized, it wasn’t his fault, was it? Nothing was his fault.

Same as Moash. Same as he tried to do to Dalinar. Nothing’s your fault, give me your pain. And give me your responsibility, your morals too.

“I made you, Kaladin!” Amaram’s red eyes lit the crystals that rimmed his face. “I gave you that granite will, that warrior’s poise. This, the person you’ve become, was my gift!” “A gift at the expense of everyone I loved?” “What do you care? It made you strong! Your men died in the name of battle, so that the strongest man would have the weapon. Anyone would have done what I did, even Dalinar himself.” “Didn’t you tell me that you’d given up that grief?” “Yes! I’m beyond guilt!” “Then why do you still hurt?” Amaram flinched.

Eat shit, Amaram.

Nice try, manipulating Kaladin, but you protested too much. You spent so much time spouting justifications. How long have you rehearsed those? Could you even convince yourself?

Kaladin points it out--Odium will never, never give Amaram peace. There is no absolution to be found there. Just the illusion.

The highprince’s entire chest had collapsed inward. There was no sign of ribs or internal organs. Instead, a large violet crystal pulsed inside his chest cavity, overgrown with dark veins. If he’d been wearing a uniform of padding beneath the armor, it had been consumed. He turned toward Kaladin, heart and lungs replaced by a gemstone that glowed with Odium’s dark light.

How does that power feel, Amaram? Kaladin keeps pointing it out--if you’re truly guiltless, if you truly believe the sanctimony you spit, why do you still hurt?

And Amaram is furious.

And he makes a mistake--he jumps into the air. And if you’re fighting Kaladin? You never go into the air. He manages--he slams Syl, a spear, against the gemstone at the heart of whatever Amaram turned himself into. And it cracks.

Kaladin floated downward toward him. “Ten spears go to battle,” he whispered, “and nine shatter. Did that war forge the one that remained? No, Amaram. All the war did was identify the spear that would not break.”

Amaram is howling, clutching his gemheart--which goes out. And the area goes down into darkness.

Unfortunately, the Fused are still coming.

Meanwhile, the thunderclast is collapsing. Renarin and the Thaylen Shardbearer have cut off its legs and one arm--that’s good. Glys is trying to give Renarin advice--- Light. You will make it go with light.

He summons stormlight, and the thunderclast’s eyes fade and it settles, dying back down. Renarin’s still worried--he saw himself dying on this day. But he’s alive.

Shallan, Veil, and Radiant are losing their army. But one figure doesn’t vanish like the others. Long black hair blown free of braids, she steps in between the trio of Shallans and the enemy.

Jasnah Kholin has arrived.

Also, at that moment, Shallan--the one who looked like Shallan-Shallan--was a fake, and Radiant was the real one, which alarms Jasnah for a moment. We’re cycling through names for Shallan with incredible speed. They finally, finally reach the top of the wall.

Renarin is heading for the Oathgate. He notes that while his fits seem to have stopped, he still sees the world differently--in our terms, Stormlight doesn’t heal autism because why the fuck would it? It’s not an illness.

Twelve Fused are hovering over the Oathgate. Renarin heads into the spanreed room, and reports that Urithiru has also been attacked. Strangely, the Kharbranth faction has fallen completely silent. Unsurprising.

So he turns to go open it himself--and is startled and surprised when nobody tells him not to. Renarin gets new fits, now--ones where it looks like stained glass spreads around him, forming panels of images. What he sees...it makes him smile.

“You’re wondering why I’m smiling,” Renarin said. They didn’t respond. “Don’t worry,” Renarin said. “You didn’t miss something funny. I...well, I doubt you’ll find it amusing.” Light exploded from the Oathgate platform in a wave.

I’m gonna take a wild shot in the dark, here, and say: FUCK YEAH, BRIDGE FOUR.

YEP Bridge Four has come through, let by a Knight Radiant with a Shardspear.

Teft.

Shallan is still lost in all three of her, but she says that after she rests, she thinks she can settle down to being one. Rock starts nagging Renarin about getting his uniform ruined, Lyn rats out the fact that Rock got hurt when he tries to pretend it’s nothing. Fortunately, they’re near Kal--they’re getting stormlight again.

“Kaladin is close,” Rock agreed. “Ha! I feed him. But here, today, he fed me. With light!” Lyn eyed Rock. “Storming Horneater weighs as much as a chull...” She shook her head. “Kara will fight with the others--don’t tell anyone, but she’s been practicing with a spear since childhood, the little cheater.”

I love all the little ways people--Renarin, Kara, Lyn herself, everyone really--violates gender norms.

Rock hugs Renarin--Ren is a little uncomfortable, as this was not a time he was okay with just being...randomly grabbed for a hug (big mood, Renarin), but he’s so, so glad Bridge Four has arrived.

Dalinar is drifting in the Thrill. And Lift comes in, pressing the ruby into his hand. Dalinar remembers what Taravangian said about luring in spren, trapping them.

And, for the last time in his life, he embraces the Thrill. He embraces Nergaoul. He thanks it, and it is so, so happy to be praised.

“Now, old friend, it is time to rest.”

Kal is fighting like eight-on-one. He doesn’t have to win, though--he just has to survive.

Meanwhile, whatever Dalinar is doing, it’s making Nergaoul thrash and writhe, and the Fused are running. And then it implodes, and the Everstom grows still.

AND GUESS WHO FUCKING ISN’T DEAD:

A scraping sound came from nearby, and then a violet light flickered in the darkness. A shadow stumbled to its feet, dark purple light pulsing alive in its chest cavity, which was empty save for that gemstone. Amaram’s glowing red eyes illuminated a distorted face: his jaw had broken as he’d fallen, and gemstones had pushed out of the sides of his face at awkward angles, making the jaw hang limp from his mouth, drool leaking out the side. He stumbled toward Kaladin, gemstone heart pulsing with light. A Shardblade formed in his hand. The one that had killed Kaladin’s friends so long ago.

AND HE’S ABOUT TO STRIKE AMARAM DOWN, AND KALADIN SAYS “BRIDGE FOUR.” AND AN ARROW SLAMS INTO AMARAM FROM BEHIND.

AND ANOTHER SHOOTS HIM RIGHT THROUGH THE GEMHEART, AND ROCK IS GLOWING ON THE RUBBLE, WITH AMARAM’S SHARDBOW.

Sometimes, Kaladin doesn’t have to save everyone. Sometimes, it’s time for them to save Kaladin.

Dalinar is crying as he cradles the gemstone containing Nergaoul. It’s over. It’s over.

#oathbringer spoilers #stormlight archive liveblog #dalinar voice: unite them #shut the fuck up rayse #radiants being radiant #herald sighting #god do i hate meridas amaram #adolin kholin is a ray of sunshine #FUCK YEAH BRIDGE FOUR

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preservationandruin · 7 years ago

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Oathbringer Liveblog, Part One. Chapters 15-19

I think one reason these cover so few chapters is that I’m desperate to catch any detail that might possibly be relevant, but I don’t know what might be, so I’m scouring everything.

Adolin has a (not so) bright idea, Dalinar spars and discusses religion, We learn a name we haven’t heard so far, Kaladin makes some friends (ish), Shallan explores, and we get a flashback to Dalinar flipping off a cryptid while on a knife quest.

Shallan and Adolin are discussing the murders, and also Shallan’s drawings of Urithiru remain terrifying. Shallan brings up the possibility that they are opportunity killings, and unknowingly is right on the money. We know that with Adolin, it basically was an opportunity killing, with the opportunity being Sadeas saying “What are you going to do, stab me?”

Shallan thinks Adolin is fixating on the “two murderers” theory just because he likes it. No, it’s because he knows there were two murderers.

Anyway, Adolin says he has to talk about something serious with Shallan, and her thoughts--of course--go to I killed my parents I stabbed my mother and strangled my father--

And Adolin wants to teach her how to use her Shardblade. Oh, Adolin. Even seeing that thing is a massive traumatic trigger for her. And Shallan gets upset that Adolin compares her to Kaladin, “ranking women as equal to peasants”--Shallan, I like you, but please get over your classism.

And Adolin doesn’t notice how close she is to a breakdown, and so she draws herself another persona to survive. Pattern is concerned. She calls this persona Brightness Radiant--bringing her up to three fake identities--Shallan, Veil, and Brightness Radiant. I’m counting her normal identity because that’s a persona too.

Anyway, Adolin is a fucking sword nerd. Also Radiant isn’t the best at picking up interesting hints--she’s not curious like Shallan is. Adolin says that he always felt like his blade was alive, but she dismisses it.

This is not a healthy coping mechanism, but at least becoming Radiant means she can use her sword. But some day this web of personas is just going to crash down around her. She needs to talk about her trauma and actually work through it, not bury it, and if it sounds like I’m a therapist it’s because I’m imitating mine because hoo boy do I know some things about compartmentalizing your life away.

Anyway, back to Dalinar. He does, in fact, have Szeth’s Honorblade. Thanks to Stormfather, we get that Honorblades are forged directly from Honor’s soul, and aren’t autonomous enough to scream. Stormfather can’t break Oaths, but neither can Odium; he’s a force that, like any other force, cannot break its own rules. Also, we get that Dalinar winning--even in a contest against Odium’s champion--will only buy them time. Until the next Desolation, perhaps.

Stormfather compares himself to Honor’s shadow--which both makes me think of the Shadow of Preservation, the Mist Spirit, and of the nine shadows of Odium. So Stormfather is to Honor as each of those Unmade are to Odium? That’s plausible. There’s also the implication that there are more like the Stormfather--because how else would there have been three Bondsmiths at one time? There have to be other godspren. Has anyone bound the Nightwatcher? That might be interesting, as Cultivation (who we assume she’s connected to) is still alive.

Anyway.

Dalinar is getting backtalk from Rial, another of the Bridgemen (from Bridge 13). It’s hilarious. He’s pointing out that if Dalinar wants to know the time, Navani did give him a clock...

Dalinar’s looking for a spar, and Zahel’s there! And his habit of trying to make a metaphor and ending up with a Nalthian shitpost is...still there.

“Every moment in our lives seems trivial,” Zahel said. “Most are forgotten while some, equally humble, become the points on which history pivots. Like white on black.” “White...on black?” Dalinar asked. “Figure of speech.”

He’s just given up explaining. Anyway, Dalinar does get a spar in (a wrestling match) and Dalinar was losing, but Navani shows up, irritated. Yet again Dalinar misses a meeting doing something stupid. At least he’s not digging a latrine trench in Shardplate. Navani is just like you fucking lost Dal.

Also, “gemheart” is a term of endearment. And Dalinar admits he was planning to fight the man with nine shadows himself, although he realizes that was a stupid idea. Dalinar is feeling stubborn and decides to just have the meeting in the fighting arena. Because sometimes he’s just extra. And he uses his position over Kadash to make the other man fight with him, which is...Dalinar, fighting is not a substitute for having actual conversations with each other. He’s just like yeah i’ll take messages while I’m sparring.

Kadash points out that Dalinar was always better than other people at killing things. He’s right. Navani is thoroughly Done with Dalinar but is humoring him anyway. Dalinar is somehow having an argument with Kadash and a conversation with Navani simultaneously. And fighting. Why is he like this.

The Iriali are considering siding with the Voidbringers instead of the Alethi. That’s...not unexpected, honestly. It’s a much more clever way of dealing with people than just conquering all of them. Still, I don’t like it. Dalinar, you have to sell your case. This isn’t the Silver Age and everyone isn’t going to rally behind Alethela the Defender Nation again.

Also, Iri is bitter that Adolin has his shardplate--it names Dalinar a thief. Also, in case I’m seeming calm and collected about Dalinar’s plan getting cut to shit while Kadash points out that he’s basically a heretic, my nails are bitten down to the quick right now. And Dalinar makes a good point about tradition--it’s only useful when it’s actually useful. You can’t assume something is right just because it’s old.

Kadash says that Dalinar sounds like his niece. Dalinar takes that as a compliment, as being compared to Jasnah should always be. And he uses stormlight to stick Kadash to the ground.

And Navani said Dalinar’s wife’s name--Evi--and he actually heard it. Evi. Evi of Rira; Evi Kholin. And memories--some memories--come back. He can remember her name, and he can remember her face.

Holy shit, y’all.

Although, a brief concern: in Edgedancer, Lift’s no-aging ability was going away; now Dalinar’s memory is coming back. Is something wrong with the Old Magic?

And we cut to Kaladin “Get Captured On Purpose” Stormblessed, of course. He’s tied to a tree, as he has been for about a day, and the Parshmen are arguing about what to do with him. They don’t have a leader, and it’s confirmed that they don’t want to go back into slavery. He hasn’t seen the yellow-white spren from before again, but it’s been mentioned twice so it’s probably significant.

PARSHENDI KIDS!! I LOVE THEM!! Also Kaladin is starting to check how he think about Parshmen, thinking about what Rlain would say if he heard Kaladin talk like that. As they’re moving, Kaladin feels a distinct familiarity to it--but he can’t place from where, or why.

Well, he just remembered. It reminded him of when he was escaping slavery. Kaladin makes the mistake of assuming that he understands what the Parshmen were going through, though--

“I have spent my entire life living in a fog,” the parshman yelled at him. “Every day knowing I should say something, do something to stop this! Every night clutching my daughter, wondering why the world seems to move around us in the light--while we are trapped in the shadows. They sold her mother. Sold her. Because she had birthed a healthy child, which made her good breeding stock. Do you understand that, human? Do you understand watching your family be torn apart, and knowing you should object--knowing deep in your soul that something is profoundly wrong? Can you know that feeling of being unable to say a single storming word to stop it?” The parshman pulled him even closer. “They may have taken your freedom, but they took our minds.”

Hey, that’s fucked up, humanity. Hey, hey, humanity? Maybe you fucking deserve to be wiped out in a desolation, thought about that? Maybe you shouldn’t fucking sell people.

Syl is acting like a windspren, which gets Kaladin terrified for a moment, but she clarifies that it’s not because Kaladin’s fucked with his oaths--it’s because she thinks that the parshmen can see her. She also mentions that the spren from earlier is hanging around and is a higher spren like Syl, and is invisible to Kaladin.

Now there’s a thought. We know this group of parshmen is strange--they’re the only ones who stole things, to eat--and now they have a higher spren around them. Perhaps they’re sort of...bonded with that spren, and that stopped Odium’s influence? Perhaps one of those Parshmen is a budding Radiant? Hard to say.

Well, Syl thinks that other spren might be a Voidspren, and that it’s how the Parshmen know where they’re going. But it isn’t red, it’s yellow-white. Also, we get that the Everstorm literally put back a part of the Parshmen’s souls--that humanity somehow ripped out a part of their souls and locked it away. That must have been what Gavilar was talking about, with the darklit spheres.

So Kal decides to for some reason start giving them advice about how to hide better. Of course, they don’t trust him, but the next stop the daughter gives him a waterskin and asks why the humans won’t just let them go. Kal has decided to help out the Parshmen, because...well, because he’s Kal.

Anyway, Shallan is being Veil. Pattern notes that she’s better at being Veil than at being Radiant. Also, we get more of Urithiru being Weird and Unexplored.

PATTERN REFERS TO ADOLIN AS “THE SWORDSMAN YOU CAN’T MATE WITH YET” IM GONNA SHIT

Also, Pattern has come to the “exciting” revelation that humans don’t care about dead things, so of course they use Blades. Also Shallan tells Pattern to marry Adolin if he likes him so much and Pattern literally asks if that’s an option. Shallan tells him no. Anyway, Pattern says that Shallan will hate him, but Shallan replies that she doesn’t want him to die and leave her too.

And so Shallan, as Veil, is going to a bar, trying to investigate the murders some. Time for “is Shallan going to fuck this up or no.” She tries leaning suavely against a corner and nearly knocks a bunch of boxes over, so we’re off to a great start. She’s pretty quickly outed herself as a total rookie, though--she doesn’t know there are differences between darkeyed and lighteyed wine, among other things. I’ll admit I’m skimming this because wow, secondhand embarrassment hits hard.

Anyway, a dude is now flirting with Veil. And she’s getting very drunk. Veil no. Fortunately, a little stormlight just wipes away all of her drunkenness, and she gets the information she wanted--there have been weird killings among the darkeyes, too.

Shallan also just has a moment of panic when she realizes she doesn’t know if she killed her brothers or not, because she could have lightwoven them into existance if she did. Pattern is starting to get worried about the depths of the lies Shallan puts on herself. That’s fair--it’s not healthy.

Aaand Shallan has ordered Horneater white wine, which. Uh. Shallan be careful that stuff is probably literally lethal. Also, she has a disturbing thought while trying not to puke--it doesn’t hurt worse than “the pains already inside.” Shallan, drinking to cope with your issues is a very bad plan.

She literally ends up with the alcohol getting taken away from her because if she continues like that she will end up dead. She’s healing herself, but they don’t know that. Also, maybe people from Jah Keved are better with Horneater liquor, given that they have horneater blood? Hard to say.

Anyway, Shallan makes a story about how Veil is hunting the person who killed her little sister. She asks for details about the death, about how it was unusual. The woman killed was a grown woman. And she gets a little more Horneater wine out of the deal.

She does make the mistake of taking a Horneater’s seat while asking for information, though. She stabs directly through her safehand into another guy’s hand and then scratches the symbol for the ghostbloods onto the table, which is one hell of a power move.

Anyway, the murderer wasn’t the same murderer as the one who killed Sadeas (obviously) or the other lighteyes. Also, everyone’s scared of the ghostbloods. But there’s an interesting note about this murder--there was a second, right after the first, a person like the first one, killed in the same way--and the murderer insisted he hadn’t done it.

Another double murder. Another one where the murderer of the first didn’t do it the second time, but the second time was literally identical down to the smallest detail. Something in Urithiru is replicating murders.

Back to Dalinar, 31 years ago. He’s lighting his napkin on fire in a decorative candle while wondering what the purpose of decorative candles are. They’re at a feast, and Gavilar gets Dalinar to stop burning shit.

Anyway, Gavilar is speaking with Brightlord Toh of Iri/Rira about battle tactics, Dalinar is bored, and I think this was one of the chapters Brandon did a reading of, in which case this is about to be a wild fucking ride.

[Gavilar] wore a uniform of the newer style. Formal, rigid. Dalinar instead wore his skirtlike takama and an open overshirt that went down to midthigh, his chest bare.

Gavilar’s sitting there in a uniform and Dalinar is setting shit on fire, lounging around titties out. Why is he like this.

We also get the main conflict of this chapter, which is that Dalinar can’t find a good knife to eat his food with. And so he just takes his wine and casually, casually walks outside into the highstorm. Titties still out. And he breaks into the servants’ quarters to try to get his knife. Why is he like this.

Dalinar glanced and saw something luminous in the distance: a gargantuan figure that moved on spindly glowing legs. Dalinar stepped back into the feast hall, gave the whatever-it-was a rude gesture, then pushed open the door--throwing aside two servants who had been holding it closed--and strode back in.

Dalinar literally sees a cryptid and just flips it off and keeps going with his life. THIS MAN NOW CONTROLS URITHIRU. Anyway, Gavilar is gleeful because Dalinar just proved a very important point: they’re strong enough to protect the people they’re treating with. Because if one of your princes just casually strolls out in a highstorm, clearly they know no fear.

Anyway, Navani shows up, and Dalinar angsts because she’s married to his brother. Dalinar immediately orders more wine; Ialai shows up as well. Navani is very amused that Dalinar scared off the guy they were treating with. They report on Toh’s sister, as being a touch vapid but honest--I’m sort of assuming that she’s Evi. Given that Toh has Shardplate--plate that will probably become Adolin’s, the plate that Iri accuses Dalinar of stealing--it seems a fair bet. And they’re planning to marry her to Dalinar. Meanwhile, the Knife Problem continues:

“How am I supposed to eat a pork steak with this?” “Attack it,” Ialai said, making a stabbing motion. “Pretend it’s some thick-necked man who has been insulting your biceps.” “If someone insulted my biceps, I wouldn’t attack him,” Dalinar said. “I’d refer him to a physician, because obviously something is wrong with his eyes.” Navani laughed, a musical sound. “Oh, Dalinar,” Sadeas said. “I don’t think there’s another person on Roshar who could have said that with a straight face.”

Gavilar is pontificating about the nature of humanity and meanwhile Dalinar has somehow bent his steak knife. Sadeas calls Dalinar a gem, and I’m reminded of this wonderful piece of art:

http://dalinarkholin.tumblr.com/post/138508422546/was-the-oathbringer-dalinar-chapter-even-real‘

which is a big mood honestly, like, is this really real.

Anyway, we get our first glimpse of Evi. She’s from Rira, so she’s less used to having a safehand be a thing; she’s tall, but seems flimsy, but her hair is gold. Ialai starts theorizing about what she’s like in bed, as one does, but Dalinar gets distracted because he saw an assassin going for Gavilar. (Well, specifically he saw a knife. He’s got a one-track mind). He kicks Gavilar’s chair over, stopping the man from killing him, grabs the dude’s knife, and stabs him. Entire thing takes maybe three seconds.

He nodded to himself, righted his chair, sat down, then leaned over and yanked the man’s knife from his chest. A fine blade. He washed it off in his wine, then cut off a piece of his steak and shoved it into his mouth. Finally. “Good pork,” Dalinar noted around the bite.

WHY IS HE LIKE THIS

Reminder: he did all of that with his titties out. Young Dalinar is on levels of ridiculous usually only found in D&D campaigns.

#oathbringer spoilers #stormlight archive liveblog #protect kaladin stormblessed 2k17 #kholin family is best family #ghostbloods doing ghostthings #well #veil doing ghostthings

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