I am once again projecting onto kaladin stormblessed

A probably-obvious observation from Sanderson’s works, specifically Kaladin, Kelsier, and Vin:

There’s nothing quite like the rage of someone who has bought into their social system suddenly discovering that it’s unjust. Kaladin as a kid really believed in the Alethi social mythology of noble and heroic lighteyes, and kept on buying into it even through Roshone (these particular lighteyes aren’t noble and heroic, but other ones are! if I go to the Shattered Plains I’ll find them!) up until his betrayal by Amaram. His rage against lighteyes isn’t just rage against an unjust system, but the rage of someone realizing he’s been lied to his whole life. Kelsier lived a life of privilege up until he was sent to the Pits of Hathsin, and turned against the Final Empire and the aristocracy in a rage that he wasn’t immune from their injustices.

Vin, on the other hand, who has had a much worse life even from childhood, doesn’t have the same fire of rage. The Final Empire is oppressive and tyrannical. Water is wet. Plants are brown. Ash falls from the sky. That’s how life is. She joins the revolution not so much out of fury at injustice as at happiness at having the chance to be part of a real community for the first time in her life.

Perhaps they’re coming at things from precisely opposite directions. Kaladin and Kelsier start out with the understand that the world can be non-terrible, and have the realization that it is terrible forced upon them. Vin starts out with the understanding that the world is terrible and is drawn into the revolution by the gradual acceptance that it might be possible for it not to be terrible. It’s also why she’s less angry at the aristocracy: bad is the default, bad is taken for granted, occurrences of decency are a pleasant surprise.

Like I get that he’d be pretty annoyed that the Rosharan ladies are feigning illness just to get examined by him but can you really blame them? I’d be first in line.

kaladin stormblessed

i love this child your honor

POV: it’s 2021 and you still think about klance every night

yes. it’s me right now🤡 the sunset scene lives in my mind rent free

Stormlight Archive Character Thoughts - Adolin

This is an interesting character journey, because I went from not liking him much in The Way of Kings to having him as one of my favourite characters in Rhythm of War. And I feel like it’s a mix of three things:

Brandon improving his writing of the character.

The character becoming more sympathetic as we see more of him.

Adolin growing and maturing as a person.

Brandon’s said in interviews that the main purpose of Adolin perspectives in The Way of King was to provide an alternate perspective on Dalinar’s story. More specifically, he said it became difficult to balance the presentation of Dalinar as a very eetermined, decisive person with a plotline that (in Part 2) revolved around Dalinar questioning his own sanity. So we see Adolin taking on more of that questioning role.

My difficulties with Adolin in The Way of Kings came from a few different things. First, while I obviously didn’t know how bad the Blackthorn had been, Adolin preferrring his father as an unquestioning warrior over being a man who thought seriously about right and wrong didn’t look good. The Alethi warrior ethos was pretty openly toxic (in their very first chapters, a bunch of civilians die because the king wants to show off by fighting a dangerous monster and treating it as a pleasure outing), and I valued Dalinar’s questioning of it. Adolin’s complaints about things like uniforms and duelling felt shallow and spoiled, and his string of relationships with women strengthened this impression. In Words of Radiance, there were still things that really rubbed me the wrong way, such as Adolin’s thoughts on the Alethi lighteyed-darkeyed caste system:

Adolin was all for treating men with respect and honor regardless of eye shade, but the Almighty had put some men in command and others beneath them. It was simply the natural order of things.

Yeah, no.

There are a lot of things that change about Adolin in Words of Radiance and afterwards that make him a more sympathetic character. His thoughts on duelling show more depth than we’ve seen from him previously, and his skill at it and its importance to him as an area of personal development show why it was so frustrating to him to have it banned. . His relationship with Shallan is adorable. His determination to be imprisoned to protest Kaladin’s treatment shows the strength of his loyalty and a stronger sense of justice than anyone else involved in that situation exhibits, and his willingness to believe Kaladin about Amaram shows he’s perceptive about people. (And he was previously right about Sadeas being untrustworthy and Kaladin having a secret.)

Over the next books, it’s his empathy, good humour, loyalty, and kindness that make him a major fan favourite. He’s always able to support others, even when he’s having a hard time himself. One of the times is stands out is during the Oathbringer sequence in Shadesmar, where he’s making an active effort to support the others and keep their spirits up even when his own inner thoughts are We are literally in Hell. His wonderful relationship with Maya in Rhythm of War is an extension of this and and extension of the strong respect for his Blade he’s shown ever since Words of Radiance. And things like his interest in fashion become less shallow-seeming and more endearing.

Some of this feels like it comes from getting more varied viewpoints from him, and I think some of it comes from Brandon changing how he writes the character, but some also comes from Adolin maturing as a person. He goes through a lot over the first two books. In The Way of Kings, there’s the realization that his father is not mad, and also the realization that his friends are shallower than he believed as they draw away from him when Dalinar’s reputation declines. The latter realization gets harsher in Words of Radiance when his closest friend from TWOK, Jakamav, tries to kill him in the four-on-one duel. It’s a journey, for Adolin, about learning the difference between superficial personability and genuine honor and loyalty, even when the latter are shown by people (i.e. Kaladin) who aren’t the most personable. We don’t get his thoughts on that after the duel, but his actions speak for themselves.

So I think it’s valuable to understand Adolin not as someone who was always the lovely person we see in Oathbringer and Rhythm of War, but who had a lot of nascent good qualities combined with some shallowness and some of the inherent assumptions of his culture, and largely matured and grew out of his worse qualities while strengthening the good ones. (He’s still suffering from some of the Alethi social assumptions - he almost died in Rhythm of War thinking that his fighting skills were the only thing of value he had to contribute, when his true strengths were the empathy and kindness that both Maya and Shallan needed, and the genuine sincerity and courage that inspired Notum’s support. He saved Kaladin’s life in the first part of the book by being a good friend. I hope that in Book 5 he understands how deeply valuable these qualities are.)

it's my birthday today yay

WHY WHY WHY WHY

LEAVE ME ALONE VOLTRON YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD

Me too, Moash

*wakes up in the middle of the night sweating* is kaladin stormblessed ok?? is he happy? did he get a hug today???

kaladin is the prettiest person in the whole entire cosmere and you can’t change my mind

kaladin said well i have some free time might as well fuck around and invent psychology

today is a good day to tell everyone that i love declan lynch very much

it’s Adolin Kholin loving hours

me: let kaladin take a break!!!!

Dalinar: ...

me : no, not like this I-