#this is so so so so so so so long

[crowsintheforest]

it's been a few weeks, by the time I post this, since I finished wind and truth. mostly I wanted to write out my thoughts as best I can, think on it some more, because for the first 48h after I finished I mostly was just laying around like

this got out of control so putting my thoughts behind a cut. tl;dr, book good, I have lots of thoughts, can't wait for 2031 or whenever we get book 6 (and also the next mistborn trilogy, ghostblood trilogy, my guy)

overall, I really liked it! sanderson makes very breezy high fantasy books: characters who are easy to love, big world-shaking plots with strong small-scale interpersonal stuff, themes of love despite the horrors, and some of the most fascinating magic systems around. we got to see a bunch of that last one all tossed together, with all the world hopping going on.

it's been really neat seeing sanderson improve as a writer. while I don't think this is necessarily my favorite sanderson book (or my favorite stormlight, for that matter), WaT shows off how much he's grown as a writer and a storyteller. using 1400 pages to maximally show 10 days of story, across multiple perspectives, nations, and worlds, gives him a lot of room to expand to a breaking point, and he manages to hold it all together, even weaving themes of the power of collaboration and interpersonal responsibility, the false promise of acceptance without responsibility, the value of redemption through choosing over and over again to change, and how kaladin stormblessed is able to be exactly where he's needed at just the right time.

(extremely minor nitpick, but I do wish he'd lay off of using literally so often)

the plot was fine, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to keep track, even with fifteen billion things going on (if you're reading this far, you probably know what this book is about, but here's my best shot: over the course of 10 days before the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny of dalinar v odium, dalinar and navani try to figure out why Honor died and end up with the worst babysitting gig; shallan tries to do a stabby and gets sucked into said history along with rlain and renarin, who are just figuring themselves out a bit; kaladin and szeth go on a murder road trip to szeth's home of shinovar; adolin tries his best to keep azir from falling to odium's forces; and venli desperately tries to find a home for her people and herself).

that was long. so I think the easiest way for me to do this is go character by character. so let's start.

I wrote so much I'm sorry

kaladin stormblessed: my emotional support bridgeboy going out there emotionally supporting the most mentally unwell people in this book. his dance with syl was a bright spot (even as szeth got kidnapped for murdering), and he's grown so much. I called him taking the herald position pretty much from the moment it opened for szeth, but that didn't make the journey he's on any less glorious. he's finally going to get a fucking break and hopefully help himself and the others heal. herald of second chances indeed.

also kudos to kal for getting tf out of the line of succession dalinar tried to en-dad him with by fucking off to a completely separate planet. maximum avoidance of lighteyed-ness through maximum acceptance of responsibility. I love him so much.

shallan davar: comparatively, not quite the depth I would have liked for shallan? but like kaladin, a lot of her emotional growth and development was in oathbringer/RoW, so getting to see her cut loose and accept herself, and use that acceptance for maximum output/knife was great. she and kelsier are going to fuck each other up and I am going to giggle with glee.

adolin kholin: I loved adolin before this book, I loved adolin during this book, and I will love adolin forever. his journey in this book is an interesting parallel to dalinar's and kaladin's, accepting his relative lack of supernatural power but also embracing his role as a leader and a helper. he helped maya! he helped his armor spren! he helped yanagawn!!! he used a candelabra in a duel!!!!! finally, he made the leap about oaths v promises before dalinar did, which strikes me as very adolin and also deeply sad because dalinar's dead and adolin never got to tell his dad about his realizations.

quick ot3 aside: I'm not okay that it's kaladin's gifts to shallan (boots to ground her) and adolin (a sword to support him) that got them both through their wedding. I'm not okay that kaladin is the first person they think about to improve themselves, after their spouse. I'm not okay that kaladin thinks of them as inspiration, and hope, and the drink with friends he's never going to get because his body's fuckin buried in shinovar and no one knows he helped to reforge the oathpact. I'm not okay about any of this.

dalinar kholin: so that oaths v promises thing? that dalinar has to accept because, as navani told him halfway through, he's gotta listen before he jumps, even when they're in agreement? yeah. breaking his oath to force a cosmere-level intervention, and make the other shards deal with odium. trading his life, his soul, his freedom, and his legacy, so that others might survive. and he dies protecting his grand-nephew. one of my favorite war criminals in fiction. I'll miss him very much.

szeth-son-neturo: did not expect him to give up his oaths in his apotheosis. in retrospect, very well foreshadowed, and I love that it is a decision that he took into himself, with hope for a future he never thought he deserved. his pokemon trainer journey through shinovar had some great fights in it, but idk, for all that he was the flashback character this time around, I don't feel like I learned anything new about him. maybe this is the end of his story, and I'm okay with that. hey sando can we meet his wife in the next books, she seems cool (and helped him bury kaladin's body for their first interaction, that's wild).

navani kholin: needed more of her. not sure how, and what we got was good, but...agh. I think she suffers the most from the condensed timescale post-RoW.

gavinor kholin: lol sanderson pulled an angel-and-conner on us. I had to put the book down for this one, I was giggling so hard for the wrong reasons. goofy ass twist my guy. based on a rugpull of navani losing the kid that I didn't entirely accept. can't wait for adolin to run into him in the future

sigzil: reading this book after reading the sunlit man was an exercise in emotional devastation and I will never get over sigzil finding himself, finally, and then willingly giving it up to save his spren and his comrades. fuck moash, seriously.

lift and vasher: what a duo. good luck with this one, vasher, you're going to train up a terror. you deserve it, after, what, Mad Sciencing your way to anti-light? for someone so smart, you're a dumbass.

hey btw where is vivenna, can't wait for that reunion (aka vivenna trying to gut vasher, which he deserves, what the fuck were you doing with gavilar my dude)

renarin kholin and rlain: much like navani, I feel like they kind of got the short shrift, although theirs feels less bad I think? navani felt like her continuation got cut short, but renarin and rlain both feel like their story is just beginning. which is probably the point? anyways, I like them both very much, more please. gay love saved the planet.

venli: really liked where we ended up with venli, who not only came to terms somewhat with her past devastation against her own people, but made the call to reach out to her enemies in order to forge peace. something about renarin and rlain's decision for a chance for the future via freedom of the imprisoned over continued oppression in the name of stability; paralleling venli and the singers' choice to reach out to jasnah, their oppressors and enemies, to mark their own space and nation? it's so good. I'm probably the most excited about this particular plot/nation-building moving forward.

thaidakar: kelsier what the fuck are you doing and why did you inquisitor one of your eyes, you know what happened to your brother (oh no now I'm sad about mistborn series 1 again)

jasnah kholin: you know what I realized, writing all this up, that led to jasnah's downfall? she hasn't really changed this whole series so far. journey before destination, you know? unlike pretty much everyone else, she thought she'd already finished her journey. she's the fourth ideal pretty much before the series even starts (maybe? I might be wrong), she's the smartest person in the world, she's taken steps to fill what she thinks is her weakness (strength on the front lines). but she never acknowledged that she could be fatally flawed, that she made terrible mistakes in what she thought was good, and never reconsidered her position as potentially hypocritical. I know we're getting jasnah flashbacks late in the series, so I'm excited to see where she goes in the future, but boy her shit got rocked by fen and odium.

hoid: lol. lololol. looooooooool.

[lrndvs]

compliments from girls go hard

[itsscaredycat]

so ok yeah fine i watched gravity falls again and read the book of bill

[piedpip3rrr]

What is this? A crossover episode???

[climbingthefloors]

obsessed with this baby hippo from thailand's khao khew zoo.. she has been so utterly betrayed by the world

[whiteshipnightjar]

Zoozve, my beloved

[bookwyrminspiration]

god I would be UNSTOPPABLE if I was capable of consistently initiating tasks. just you wait. you'll be waiting a while but just you wait

[magpie-to-the-morning]

I don’t WANT a career. I want to cuddle and sleep and eat and read and create and love and be loved.

[gongyussy]

good thing from jp twitter this week is queen of old man yaoi michiru sonoo discovering the term old man yaoi

update: somehow it got impossibly more wholesome

quick translation: おかえり: welcome home あ 終わった 終わった: ahhh, it's over! it's done! コーヒー? お茶?: coffee? tea? コ~ヒ~ ありがと: coffee, thank you~ ネクタイレア★★ ネクタイ取るレア★★★★: seeing him with a tie on, rarity level ★★, seeing him take a tie off, rarity level ★★★★ にあうな~: it suits him~

also please do follow: AraigumaSha: sensei's twitter account marureviere: maru, who does such valuable work highlighting bl manga for an international audience

[fishfingersandscarves]

they've never had sex

[inkskinned]

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

[nekopuff]

You've been randomly selected by the government to fight space aliens. Spin this wheel twice to see the two weird/niche superpowers assigned to you!

Interpret your results any way you like!

Inspiration from @miggylol

[apollos-boyfriend]

i was cuddling with my boyfriend last night when his shoulder started tensing up (like he was readjusting or gently pushing me off) and when i asked him if he was okay or needed me to move or something he went “no you’re fine, i was just imagining myself pulling a large rope. i didn’t even realize my shoulder was doing that lmao” then refused to elaborate and i have never been as attracted to him as i was in that moment.

[thankstothe]

!👏

[michameinmicha]

Stumbled upon this random ship (in a fandom im not active in myself) that has like 150 works on ao3 which are all from just two people gifting each other fics about this pairing back and forth and theyve been doing it for 3 years... i think thats true love probably