#tress of the emerald sea spoilers

[raealexie]

Some character illustrations of Tress and the Emerald Sea I did a couple months ago

Ah shoot I forgot to watermark…uhhhh don’t steal my art please? It’s mine? Thanks.

[off-brand-adorabbit]

Tress scratched the best itch for me, I’ve been craving a good fairy tale and it was just perfect. I kept slipping so hard into the fairy tale aspects that I kept getting caught by surprise whenever a cosmere thing stopped beating around the bush and revealed itself, actually. While I’m sure that wasn’t fully the intention, it was a really fun way to read some brandermansanderman coming fresh off of sunlit man and how intensely locked in I was with the Connections. Genuinely Tress is such a fun little romp. I love girls who sail in fucked up seas and this is a genre I want more of please thank you.

[ezhrndle]

What do you MEAN there's dragons in the cosmere Brandon? What?

[my-personal-hellsite]

So how many Breaths you think Hoid keeps in these bad boys?

[madxmellon]

I just finished Tress, and let me just say Dr. Ulaam was definitely a favorite (I love imagining how insufferable he was to Hoid with those quotes post-curse-breaking)

ID: We see Dr. Ulaam and Hoid standing together in front of a green, sporeish background. Dr. Ulaam has greyed skin, and wears a tight black suit with no buttons. His eyes are red, and staring down at an open blue book he holds in his right hand. His left hand is spread across his chest, with 6 fingers showing, 2 of which wear rings. He’s smiling with many teeth showing, saying “This is one of my favorites” to a frustrated looking Hoid. Hoid has tan skin and white hair, and is wearing an orange, flowery hawaiian shirt over a grey cotton shirt that says “I survived the crimson sea and all I got was this t-shirt”, this shirt is tucked into a pair of sequined red briefs.

[ace-fandom-dumbass]

Tress at the end of chapter 51

[cosmerelists]

Who is the In-Universe Audience for Tress?

[Spoilers for Tress of the Emerald Sea!!]

This list is dedicated to the person at the DragonCon Tress panel who asked this question of the panelists and did NOT receive a good answer (or really any answer at all), in my opinion. So for you, friend, I went ahead and reread Tress and tried to collect all of the evidence about the identity of the audience that Hoid is telling the story to. Has this already been done on Reddit or other forums? Undoubtedly yes but I just wanted to see what I could discover on my own. Here are my findings!

My theory: Hoid is telling the story to a group of apprentice storytellers on the planet First of Sun. Some Rosharans are also present...or maybe just Sigzil. Allow me to explain each part of my answer!

1. Hoid is telling the story (but to an audience who also knows him as Wit)

This we know because he literally identifies himself as Hoid the cabin boy...but he also makes a couple of Wit-related puns, including:

"And with it went my sense of humor, my sense of decorum, and my sense of self. The last one stung the most, since it appears my sense of self is tied directly to my wit. I mean, it's in the name."

"Everyone can use a little more Wit in their lives."

This suggests the audience knows him both as Hoid and as Wit. More on that later!

2. The setting: First of Sun

Wherever the story is being told, it's a place with oceans made of water that have sea creatures (these things must be specified in a Cosmere setting). Hoid often alludes to the audience's familiarity with ships, including:

"Now, I know that on your planet, steering a ship isn't that big a deal."

"I know that sailors fear storms on your planet. It's common among almost all seafaring cultures I've met."

"As I've mentioned, on your planet, you may be accustomed to the helm position on the ship being relatively unimportant."

"But you come from a world where things live in the water."

That it is specifically the First of Sun is suggested by two quotes in particular:

"I can understand why you would want tales of people like Linji, who tried to sail around the world with no Aviar."

"Yes, like the speaking minds inhabiting the ships you've seen landing on your planet."

Aviars are native to First of Sun, and we learn in Sixth of the Dusk that space ships have visited that world.

3. The audience is a group of people

This actually came as a huge shock to me, as it's only revealed near the end, as far as I know. Hoid suddenly says:

"A sailing ship is a strange thing to control--I'm sure some of you know."

Some of you! Some of you?! So the audience is not a single person, but a group of people.

4. But there are also people from Roshar present...or maybe just Sigzil

Now, this may be controversial. But it seems possible that the audience also includes off-worlders, from Roshar and maybe from Scadrial as well. Certain references certainly suggest a Rosharan frame of mind:

First, there is the fact that they know him as Wit, which is Hoid's Rosharan incarnation

Second, there is this line: "Well, now that is a gemstone that truly glitters, friend." Perhaps there are big glittery gemstones on First of Sun too, but that sure seems like a Rosharan idiom.

Third, there is this line: "I assume you have no idea what a Luhel bond is....Unlike the Nahel bond, which trades in consciousness and anchoring to realty, the Luhel bond trades in physical matter." The Nahel bond is how surgebinding works on Roshar, and Hoid assumes the audience knows what that is.

It's possible that only Sigzil is present, and that Hoid keeps making asides to him, which would be pretty cute, to be honest.

5. Maybe Scadrial is represented too??

As for Scadrial, well...there's just the fact that Hoid calls himself a Worldbringer:

"Worldbringers like myself spend decades combing through folk tales, legends, myths, histories, and drunken bar songs looking for the most unique stories."

"Worldbringer" is a Scadrian term; the Rosharan equivalent would be "Worldsinger." This might not mean anything about who's present--perhaps Hoid is spreading the notion of Worldbringers to other planets like First of Sun. But I wanted to raise it as an interesting possibility.

6. The audience is comprised of apprentice storytellers

It becomes clear at the end that the people Hoid is talking to want to learn to be paid for telling stories:

"With a few tips, he wasn't so boring after all. Secretly, I'll tell you that you aren't either. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to lower your value. Don't trust them. They know they can't afford you otherwise."

This suggests that his audience want to learn to not be boring and to be paid to tell stories--so apprentices then, perhaps. Hoid also indicates that this audience knows him, and are not just a random crowd he gathered for the occasion:

"It's called the transitive property of ineptitude, and it's the explanation for anything you've seen me do wrong ever."

Hoid refers to other planets casually, suggesting an audience that wants to learn about other cultures and places, another key aspect of being a Hoid-style storyteller:

"Compared, for example, to the depth of the Lilting Abyss on Threnody, the spore seas are practically ponds."

So! That's my theory: Hoid is using the Tress tale to train a group of would-be apprentice storytellers on First of Sun, and maybe Sigzil or other Rosharans are there too.

What do you think??

[kaladinsspear]

Just finished Tress of the Emerald Sea!

*Tress Spoilers!*

It was really good! I think Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is my favorite of the secret projects so far, but I did enjoy Tress! The Aethers are really interesting and the spore sea was a really cool concept! I love Hoid’s narrative voice so much, I could read a million stories told by him.

The sorcerer being an Elantrian was a really cool easter egg, and I’m glad I read Elantris first. I’ve seen criticism that breaking Charlie’s curse was a little hand wavy, and I can see it, but Hoid is not an expert in Aeons. If Aeons work like programming, it makes sense that he could tweak it but wouldn’t have the skill to dismantle it or rewrite it entirely.

I am curious how Riina was able to use Aeons away from Elantris. From my understanding using the Dor is using the splintered power of devotion and dominion. It’s not a living power like a shard, and is kind of like drawing water from a well. You can access the power, but you have to be in the physical location where that power is present - the planet it has invested. Even on planet, the methods used to draw on the Dor are location specific. Traveling to Teod diminished the power of Aeons in the book Elantris. How was Riina able to use them on another planet?

Kind of sad that I got spoiled about the Huck/Charlie twist, but it was also a little obvious so I’m not too disappointed. I know Brandon well enough at this point that I hopefully probably would have been able to pick up on his hints.

All together good book! I love that the kandra are just getting weirder and weirder as time passes. Yes. That is absolutely what would happen to a shapeshifting immortal.

I’m really super interested in the comments Hoid made about the shattering. Apparently he was part of the group that shattered Adonalsium (sorry, haven’t finished the cosmere yet and I’m not gonna look up how to spell it for fear of spoilers.) and he did it for Adonalsium’s own good? Is Adonalisum not dead? Or did Hoid somehow think that killing him was for his own good? Why isn’t Hoid a shard? I’m pretty confident that he’s not, though he might be the vessel for the infamous whimsy that I’ve heard about. I doubt it though. I’m pretty sure stormlight confirmed that he’s not a shard.

Anyway, Tress was a really good book and I enjoyed it!

[hauntedfarfalle]

My boy deserved better like free him this instant 😡

[adolins-heart]

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize Ulaam is a Kandra. I should've. Realized. Oh my gosh he suddenly makes so much more sense ok

[i-fucked-your-milkshake]

I love Tress of the Emerald Sea so fucking much. Is it his best book? It might be his best book. His writing benefits from the unrestrained nature of this composition and Hoid as a narrative voice? Fucking marvelous. 10/10, need sequels, preferably written in secret.

[ladyartichokie]

The Cosmere has wrecked my brain.

So, I'm finally reading Tress of the Emerald Sea and I'm currently on chapter 9 where Tress meets the rat. Before Tress saw that the rat was a rat my first thought was, "Oh this is probably Hoid." So when it was revealed that the rat was in fact a rat my first thought was not, "Oh, okay, this can't be Hoid. Or, "Cool, it's a talking rat." But rather, "HOID'S A RAT."

[isapolvorita]

I finished Tress of the emerald sea.

I liked it! I read that Sanderson took The princess bride as inspiration and you can tell. It was a funny and to the point story, the characters were nice and i liked the world so much. Also i always love a good pirate plot.

Maybe i would have liked to see more of the cities and the culture of the people who live in that world. But it doesnt change the story in nothing having it or not, so.

Also i liked how incorporates Cosmere elements, there are some that i dont understand because im not a theory fan, but i can apreciate them.

I didnt understand if Ulaam and Riina were kandras or not, they seem like they are but there are some things that dont make sense.

The thing i didnt like were the pictures. I have nothing with the quality of them. But they have the feeling that were made withouy reading the book. And maybe they were made like that, but they dont have like, consistency? Like Tress doesnt have a single braid in all the pictures. And it says at some point that Hoid had the hair short at the front and long at the back, and he looks ridiculous, but he doesnt have it that way in the picture. And also the pictures arent well posisionated, they appears so much after the scene they describe, and at some point also before. I know its difficult to place the pictures and maybe it was a translation problem more than nothing but, i think its the kind of things that someone have to mention at some point of the edition, right?

But, how i said, i liked it. Im excited to read the other ones.

[quotent-potables]

In short, Tress was a normal teenage girl. She knew this because the other girls often mentioned how they weren't like "everyone else," and after a while Tress figured that the group "everyone else" must include only her. The other girls were obviously right, as they all knew how to be unique—they were so good at it, in fact, that they did it together.

Tress of the Emerald Sea, by Brandon Sanderson, page 8

[puddlejumper38]

Rating the Secret Projects

Tress of the Emerald Sea: 7.5/10

The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England: 2/10

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: 9/10

The Sunlit Man: 6/10

So here's the details, with spoilers.

In general? This was fun. I loved the anticipation of receiving the next secret project and the presentation has been next level. I love the look of these books. The decorated hardcover with no dust jacket is one of my favourite types of books. And with the art inserts and endpapers.

Might as well start with Tress, for consistency. Its a good book, maybe even crossing the line into a great book, for all that I didn't quite connect with the characters. And that's the reason for the lower rating, really, I found Charlie annoying and in all honesty struggled with having a talking rat. There's a time and a place for a talking rat. I absolutely loved the magic system. That was very very cool.

Ah. The Frugal Wizard. I gave it a higher score when I finished it out of an attempt not to be negative. I didn't like this book. I will never reread it, out of sheer annoyance. Dear fucking god what a slog. Anyway the actual Handbook parts were worth something I guess.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. This one is a masterpiece. Interwoven plot threads, fascinating premise, interesting characters, flawlessly executed... oh wait, no, it was narrated by Hoid. Hence the missing point (it could have been 10/10). But Hoid being there brought Design and I like Crytics. I really like the Cryptic sense of humour, which is always fun and after Dawnshard I also find the Sleepless interesting. Actually, point in favour of this book - the cosmere references worked well for me. I also really loved the art, just particularly nice for Yumi. I've already reread this one.

The Sunlit Man. Hmm. I didn't love it. And can I say, straight up, I hate the name Zellion? It fills me with an unparalleled rage. I was hoping Zellion would DIE, but alas now I know who Zellion is he won't die any time soon. I didn't connect with any characters in this one, and didn't find the magic system or the plot particularly interesting. I did experience the very Branderson experience of wanting to reach through the pages and into the yet unwritten Stormlight books to find out What The Fuck Happened. Two orders? What? Also I'm mad about Auxiliary. I like spren. Fuck you Mr Branderson, that was not where I thought that was headed. As a side note, he says in the early stages of the concept the character involved would have been Shai. Unfortunately, I'd have preferred that.

So. All in all this secret project thing has been genuinely great, with Yumi and the Nightmare Painter as a stand out favourite. I love that book.

[ace-fandom-dumbass]

Reading Tress of the Emerald Sea and wow, Huck is quite literally that

A: B, I'll fight anyone who's mean to you

B: I hate myself

A: All right, square up bitch

Meme, huh