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nevertheless-moving · 2 months

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Stormlight AU 14, where kaladin manages to hold it together oathwise in words of radiance for a few more chapters, just long enough to out himself as radiant right after prison, because of course hes gotta fly and save everyone from bridge sabotage. Immediate cascade effect of radiant reveals.

Angsting over next week after prison. Shardplate and Blade possibly put on hold "too big a decision for him to just accept right away" "I just got out of jail and need some time to think."

People think he's insane but they thought that anyway

moash would be obvious choice - best friend/fighter but he still can't decide about elhokar assassination so the shards are just in very very valuable limbo...can he make it just general bridgemen Shards? No, too much training...

Joins shattered plains expedition as per canon

when the bridge collapses again what's he gonna do? Not save everyone?

Please.

Terrified officers start gently floating back up

Tries to lash shallan but she's already full of stormlight and it doesn't work on her. Moment of shocked, glowing eye contact.

there's a whole bunch of parshendi attacking so no time for kaladin to react to shallan falling or kholins to yell at kaladin

yes no time to deal with Dalinar. Kaladin has to do Very important flying thing. Uh...oh thank the almighty there's another army for him to fly at.

You KNOW bridge four had been storming Training a whole dramatic 'Captains Luck' thing. Bunch of gem pouches thrown in the air. Parshendi shouting as kaladin repeats the arrow drawing trick (sigzil is quietly pleased that after their practice, this time he throws the shield, as opposed to taking all those hits himself)

Adolin finally tore his attention away from the sky long enough to speak, dry mouthed.

"I take it by the..." he mimed the tossing of sphere pouches.

Storms, Skar had felt stupid practicing that, but Teft had insisted. And it was absolutely worth the weeks and weeks of extra weight, watching the Captain flying now. Jezrian's breath, when had he figured out flying? Lopen had said he had just started wall walking before prison. Had he figured out flying in prison? Oh, Brightlord Adolin was still talking.

"You all knew didn't you," Adolin looked amazed. "All of Bridge Four. I mean I knew there was something but - how in the Almighty's tenth name did you all keep this a secret? For this long!"

Skar and Drehy exchanged a glance.

"May we be blunt, Brightlord," Drehy finally said, watching as Kaladin swooped down low over the Parshendi, sending a few of them tumbling over to the next plateau, unharmed. Stormfather, he really was too good for this world.

"Please," Adolin said, gesturing emphatically.

Drehy hesitated, and they exchanged another look. Skar nodded at him, agreeing to take the lead, then took a deep breath.

"How in damnation did you not know??" His voice came out louder then he intended.

But storms, he had been waiting to say that for ages!

Drehy nodded eagerly, gesturing with the hand that wasn't holding his spear. "He storming glows!"

"I mean I know you were distracted during the tower assault- "

"Distracted?" Adolin sputtered.

"For a while I genuinely thought you knew but were keeping it secret for some stupid reason," Moash added, walking up. A small crowd was gathered around, attention pulled away slightly from the glowing man above and the retreating army.

"I mean," Moash snorted. "He formed a giant storming pillar of light while we were charging. You could see us charging. He was glowing like a herald for half the tower fight. No one from your entire army noticed?"

Dalinar coughed, sheepish look at odds with the golden gloryspren that kept flickering around his head.

"I... may have noticed a faint glow," he said slowly. "When he rescued me from the Parshendi Shardbarer."

The Blackthorn shrugged helplessly, looking at Kaladin, still high above. "I thought I was hallucinating..."

Why was he still up there anyway - Oh. Right. When he came down he'd have to deal with the lighteyes. Yeah, he'd stay up there too.

Adolin let out a short laugh, the hysterical noise seeming to escape uncontrolled. "You." He pointed at his father. "You saw a radiant in real life and your first thought was this is a hallucination."

Dalinar sighed. "I had hit my head. Quite a few times. It seemed more reasonable."

Adolin stared at his father, then laughed again. "You-" he couldn't get the words out over the chuckles. "Hallucinating-"

Adolin wiped his eyes, looking around. "Shallan would have something more witty, hold on."

He frowned, looking at the men who had been pulled from the chasm. They still glowed softly. Most looked shellshocked, and were holding something heavy. One of them was grinning, looking amazed as he waved his arms, bouncing off the ground, tethered by a bemused comrade.

"Where's Shallan?" He looked around more frantically, then ran to the Chasm's edge.

Skar let out a groan, and he and Drehy went after him.

"I don't think I saw her come up," Drehy whispered grimly.

Skar nodded back. Oh, there was going to be fallout for that. The Captain was always inconsolable when he failed to save someone, nevermind how many miracles he performed first - a bunch of lighteyes yelling at him was not going to help.

The Captain finally came back down, touching down at the chasm's edge just before Adolin arrived. Behind, he could hear Teft gruffly setting up a perimeter to keep onlookers back. The Highprince and the Queen's Mother pushed through of course, Renarin trailing behind. Storm's he hadn't even realized Renarin was there. Had he been running with the bridgecrew?

Skar's skin prickled as it usually did when he realized how outclassed he was was by the lighteyes around him. Almighty, the Captain most of all. He suppressed a small sigh of relief as Kaladin's eyes faded from a glowing whiteblue back to brown. He looked impassive at the Kholins.

Dalinar stepped up, opening his mouth to speak. A golden sphere spun to existence around him once more.

Kaladin turned to face him, hair streaming behind, looking for all the world like a Herald of Old, even without the glow.

Adolin interrupted. "Shallan," he said quietly, desperately. "She was on the bridge - please, I can't find her."

The Captain frowned and Skar's heart sank.

"I tried to grab her," Kaladin said slowly. "Lash her upwards. Everyone was falling too fast for me to do more....more than touch a hand to them."

"I'm sure you did everything you could," Dalinar said gravely, putting a hand on Adolin's shoulder. "I'm sorry son."

Adolin stumbled back, looking nauseous.

Kaladin shook his head. "No, you don't understand. It didn't work. She...I had to reach for another man who was about to hit a wall, but I think she was glowing. That she had already taken in Stormlight."

Adolin's head snapped up, eyes full of hope.

Kaladin shrugged. "If she's like me then...she's fine. It took me ages to figure out wallrunning, so I should still go get her."

He paused, looking off at air like he sometimes did. "Actually... I don't think most of the, uh, other orders could do the wallrunning and flying. So she's probably alright, I just need to go down and rescue her."

"What are you waiting for then?" Adolin asked eagerly.

"Son," Dalinar reprimanded. "More respectfully, please."

Adolin and Kaladin rolled their eyes in unison.

"He's still the same person," Adolin muttered. "I knew there was something strange about him."

Kaladin scoffed. "Yeah. You were right on my trail. Knew all about 'my thing with the stuff.'"

The prince brightened visibly. "And I was right! That's why you didn't want the Shardplate and Blade! You've already got your own? Or...do you have to earn it a certain way?"

Renarin sucked in a breath behind him. Skar glanced over, and saw the strange Brightlord's eyes wide with...realization, maybe? He was pretty hard to read.

The Captain, amazingly, smiled. "Something like that, princeling."

Adolin beamed, than smacked his hand to his face. "Thing... with the stuff! You need stormlight, don't you?"

He fumbled under his armor, before pulling out a small fortune in reserve Sapphire's in a pouch, tossing them.

Kaladin caught the bag, looking inside with a snort. "Well, this takes me back to how we met."

"What?"

"Nevermind. Doesn't matter."

The Captain still stood there, not breathing in, hesitating.

"Soldier?" Dalinar said. "Is there...some reason you don't want to rescue Brightlady Devar? The...other radiant?"

Kaladin let out a deep breath. "I...realize I've also been hiding my powers, so I don't have much ground for accusation. But I've suspected for sometime that she...might not be who she says she is. That she's dangerous."

Prince Adolin frowned, expression darkening as he crossed his arms. "We can figure that out once she's safe from the chasm. Now breathe in that bag and rescue my fiancee," he ordered. He hesitated, then blushed. "Please."

Kaladin sighed, then took in a deep breath, silvery white mist leaving the gems and filling the Captain with holy light. Awespren sprung up around them, and Skar knew that a few of them were his own. There were some things that you just didn't get used to.

With a salute, Kaladin stepped off the ledge, falling in a glowing streak of light. More awespren burst to life, but Skar just rolled his eyes. There were some things that you could get used to, and your commanding officer being a dramatic bastard was one of them.

continued here. also: other stormlight aus

#stormlight archive #words of radiance #words of radiance au #stormlight au no 14 #my au #stormlight au #Skar stormlight archive #cosmere #nevertheless cosmere

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tbookblurbs · 29 days

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Rhythm of War - Brandon Sanderson (Stormlight Archive #4)

4.75/5 - Kaladin :(((; love the new POVs; quantum physics in a fantasy world?

SPOILERS below!

The time skip before this book caught me by surprise (again...) but I'm not opposed to it, especially since it seems like characters have grown and changed during that time. You can't say that for every series. That said, I do think that it leaves out some potentially important scenes, such as those where Adolin and Renarin find out their father is directly responsible for the death of their mother.

Kaladin's arc is, as per usual, my favorite in the book. He's got PTSD, he's seven feet tall, he's inventing group therapy, who's doing it like him? Multiple of his scenes move me to tears however. It's an incredibly real struggle with clinical depression on top of his PTSD and experiencing multiple lifetimes' worth of trauma in less than five years, that culminates in a passive suicide attempt. His final "hallucination" with Tien in the storm is everything to me.

I also loved Venli as a new POV character. She's so flawed as a character, and that makes her much more interesting to me. I also think that she's much more understandable/easier to empathize with in her destructive actions, even as they bring the end of the world, because of her positioning in the world. She has very natural desires that are twisted against what is good for her and her people, and I would argue she's taking too much responsibility for her part in the Everstorm. Yes, she's selfish, but no more so than any of the other lighteyes in this novel.

The other major highlight for me was the science in this novel. Much of Sanderson's descriptions about "axons" are just quantum physics and atoms, as I'm sure many people picked up. As somebody with a physics background, seeing these different ways of exploring and explaining things like quantum entanglement and seeing it actually matter in a fantasy novel is like having my cake and eating it too. Navani's work with Light (and her homoerotic relationship with Raboniel) are very well done.

Things I don't entirely like and the reason for the .25 point-dock are Navani bonding the Sibling, and Dalinar as a whole to be honest. With the former, as much as I like Navani, I really wanted to see Rlain as a Bondsmith. He is actively trying to be a unifier in a way that Navani is not, though Navani and her fabrial knowledge is very well matched with the Sibling.

With respect to Dalinar, while I still find him an interesting character, the things I didn't like about him in past books come out in full force here. He's overbearing, he micromanages, he believes that his vision (and only his) is the correct path forward, he can't accept disagreement, he holds everyone to standards he himself doesn't meet, etc. He also doesn't face any significant challenge to those beliefs in this book, aside from Jasnah verbally challenging him. I also just don't understand how Renarin and Adolin continue to see Dalinar as "the most honorable man they know" when, and this is explicit in the text, he is not. I also don't love the deal he makes, but that's a smaller issue I suppose.

Now that Wind and Truth are coming out this year, I interested to see where Sanderson ends this final chapter. Hoping to see more of Lift and a less-depressed Kaladin!

#i didn't even touch on shallan and adolin but their part was like weirdly small?#anyway maya's scene at the end goes sooooo crazy to me bc even the spren didn't give each other agency #also shallan's twist is still insanely good but not as attention-grabbing the second time around #rhythm of war #brandon sanderson #cosmere #book review #fantasy #high fantasy #kaladin stormblessed #dalinar kholin #navani kholin #raboniel #venli

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kainekron · 2 years

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notes form my last Stormlight reread

Way of kings

[What the hell is an old blood] one of Dalinars men has a tattoo on the cheek that marks him as an old blood still don't know what it is tho

[why Do Cryptics hunt proto radiants in groups?] I think somewhere it's said that it was just Pattern but idk

[Hasina is weird] I think this is in reference to the sitting on the roof chapter but I have no memory of what stood out to me

[Honor's loves in the heart of men?] I have no idea

[Kaladin says he will never be free of his brands] this is more there for fun I noticed that he said that and it was not trou

["They brought you to me" - - Jasnah in reference to Shallan (ghost bloods?) (why would the Cryptics send Shallan to her?)] basically Jasnah thought that the Cryptics brought Shallan to her because she was also a radiant

[How does Syle interact with light?] basically what it says

[Nothing there-- in relation to the pure lake] idk i just think this is part of that small foreshadowing that we will look on later and be like "boy were they wrong"

[You can't catch a spren, not in any way he knew.] just Dalinar showing how little he knows about fabrials

words of radiance

[Was the santhid a sleepless?]

[Order of bones was that a name you guys gave them?] this is something Teft said to the rookie bridge men when training them in the chasms I assumed it was a fan name

[Spren attracting spren] this is something Syl said that I feel might become true either because of the 5th or just by the passage of time

[Love adolin talking to Maya and the epigraph about mate form and true empathy]

[You sound more and more like her. Pattern (jasnah?)]

[Nature blushing stone drawing] shallan does a drawing in one chapter of a lady breaking down a statue is it ash or is it some metaphor

[God do I really like the scene where renarin asks to join bridge 4 Kal is basically the bright lord renarin respects, right head of the king's guard and all]

[What were the hairpins And the branch] some of the thing in Marises collection just don't know what they are

[What surprised hoid about shallan? More evidence that she isn't shallan.] look I have this whole thing about shallan not being lin Davar's daughter like ya he had a daughter just not the lady we know but it's most likely wrong

["Didn't expect to see you" here Probably just future sight about her tho] this is from hoid idk him recognizing shallan is either nothing or a super big deal

[Two blind men thing. what does it mean? Is it as simple as beauty? Oh I guess I get it but it's still weird [addendum] wit says he is one of them neat]

[Where does the too much air thing come from is it something that happened due to turning the singers into parshmen?]

[The horn eaters were probably hated due to there mating with the singers]

[What do you think shallen's brothers be if they were radiants?]

[First time in my memory Brandon doesn't point out that the kholins think like soldiers. Adolin: Nah I haven't seen one, tangent into battle tactic speculation] this is during their date and usually from Navaine's perspective she always pointed that out but shallan not knowing this doesn't point it out

[Why did renarin take Dalinar's it's so silly] idk man

[The second-Hand embarrassment from "and for my boon"]

[Such a deep lie very deep-(pattern) shallan isn't shallan I fucking swear] I know she's a constructed trauma response but my brain wants her not to be human in the then end for some damn reason

["The details of the roshon affair aren't important." are they dalinar are they really?]

[Connection mask?] this is about iatile and her mask my thought was about the mask is a big medallion or something

[Shallan knows what a spren with a broken bond is or at least responds to patterns statements about them with out question] just some neat foreshadowing maybe

[I don't think Kal will die I think he will seal himself away somehow to save others]

[Ah the bromance]

[I really wanted to see Kaladin become a Shardbarer] an impossibility but still neat to think about

[Remind me to try to kill you every once in a while]

[So does black Bain just keep getting stronger indefinitely?]

[Soul casters aren't gold? The book says it's silvery.]

[Unless black Bain degrades or is heavily exaggerated in potency then Lin divar is one strong mother fucker or shallan put too little]

["Sorry about the damage to the packaging." Wtf Kaladin] this live just feels out of character

[I love her scaring the shit about of adolin completely forgot that]

[OH right lahan was in the main continuity] loved lahan in prime here not so much

[Is just me or are the 10 fools always the 10 heralds]

[Elokar's whole speech about not knowing what to do is really nice actually]

[We will see mericals today if we deserve them-good line]

[Listening to teravangian writing in the diagram I wonder how he learned some things or whether he just masterful connections] because in my head I feel like something should have been completely wrong just by luck

[I like how moash getting blinded by light is a bit of a motif] it happens once in WoR and twice in ROW and maybe once in WOK

[How does dalinar know szeth's name]

[I would love an AU were adolin is the bondsmith] as in the stormfather smith

[Do we know who shallan's mother's friend was/what secret organization they were part of] i think it was the sky breakers not sure

["I don't want to study I want to be dead!" Me too szeth]

[Idk I feel like seadase was well smart in trying to get dalinar out of the way but at this point he could have just given up] like it's clear Dalinar isn't losing after the end of WoR

[Also I remember him being flatned by this but no he still the same Still disappointed about the lake of consciences to adolin's murder]

[If we ever get a Stormlight game the start screen has to be the madman's blade stabbed into the roof of urithuri]

Edgedancer

[You will find God the same place you would find salvation in the hearts men]

[Oh I just got that lift got nervous and left azir because she had a period. Neat?]

[What was the black dust the guard lady found] like is it just her dusting things she was a radiant if i remember correctly

[I would love to see lift grabbing syl out of the air]

[God all radiant spren are useful. What would peak spren or mist spren do that is special]

[Lift can revive the dead even if other edge dancers can't]

[Lift is basically just Kaladin-like on a fundamental level they both care too much]

[I like seeing the consistency of harelds regaining their sanity when a radiant swears an oath]

[Oduim is the sun in shin faith right?]

oathbringer

[Impenetrable renarin lol I'm such a child]

[Young Shardless dalinar vs pre-bond Kaladin who wins]

[I am surprised you people don't mention how gloom spren should surround Kal instead of wind spren]

[I was born under the sign of the nine--- adolin hmmm]

["you see you only ruined the wrong ones" fuck shallan that is a good line smooth]

[While I hate how much shallan's split personalities distract the plot I do like how it started]

[I love how adolin gets distracted nerding out about sword fighting]

[Are all the iriali just one dragon split into an entire race]

[I love Dalinar's story about the takama belt]

[OK I have to admit I hate Kate reading's reading she exaggerates shallan so much it hurts (made during the vail chapter where she goes out drinking)]

[He even cracks his knuckles louder] this is a line from shallan about adolin and another man and you're surprised she ended up with him

[I know Brandon said he doesn't think radiant should be reincorporated but idk it feels right for shallan]

[Veil is such a noir detective]

[What happened to toh (Evi's brother)?] i think he went to the althie countryside

["When my father said good relationships need investment I don't think this is what he meant." Adolin on giving shallan some Stormlight good pun Brando]

[Bouncing to book 2 and book 4 stuff. El he is basically what eshonai describes the humans as no rhythm one from the carapace of steel]

[Relistning to the natan man lighthouse guy's part again is really nice can't wait to see what it means]

[Dalinar could use a good session of needing bread. This line from rock is interesting I would like to see if this is more than light for shadowing of his noahdon dream]

[What were the barbarians in Dalinar's vision the stoneward]

[They are their kings... I love to see a singer king/queen as fused]

[funny how by 4 moash is back to his old boss teravangian]

["Bridge 4 you bastards". This does not spark joy]

[The lady leading the flying fused was leshwie right]

[I love jasnah's little sanity rant]

[Maybe it's the crazy in me but I can't help but think we are missing something about Moash's past] like something about the Roshone affair meant to make him full evil Roshone was in the right or something like that

[Moash is just an evil Kaladin in Oathbringer]

[Hariel I want to see more of him]

[Oduim God of gods. Is he, is he really?]

[Hoid and Shallan's conversation in the private room of the inn is just weird if feels out of character] it just feels off

[Who is the man with tanalon?]

[I wish my sons won't kill thousands to avenge me... Me too dalinar]

[What/who is malishi]

[What did elhokar say to Lil gav]

[Does nightblood know something we don't like about "evil"] there is something to it maybe probably not

[Even though I and others might have not wanted navanie to become a bond Smith you can see in the chapter where she hosts the cololeion of monarchs that she is a bondsmith a forger rather than Dalinar's uniter] 100% agree she fits the role just wished we had her as something else

[Szeth son nutro remember using loopholes is dangerous... Hope so for Dalinar's sake]

[Ya no shaladin would not work they both would break]

[My husband wants unity not dominion sure nevanie]

[I love adolin's attempt to break it off with shallan]

dawnshard

[Why do the sleepless have weird names for people like navanie mother of machines]

["Lunammor the fal'ala'liki'nor he who drew the bow of hours at the dawn of the new millennium heralding years of change" "The ancient pact of the seven peaks" All of this is said by cord and now I'm hyped to read Lunammor if it's ever written to understand what any of that means]

["Soulcasters were offerings of the ancient guardians." So did Larkin make them?]

[It would take a bitter soul to hate you lopen. All the lopen haters just got called out I guess]

Rythem of war

[Why moash as in why is he, he who quits? Like why did rayse pick him? Is it just a test of what he wanted to do to dalinar? Why not give him the power of champion is it tied to the contest?] like you can reuse it on other people later

[Vasher anime parried Kaladin that's awesome and funny]

[Relain just explaining anti-light]

["The moons Will stop orbiting and the sun will come crashing down." Don't jinx it Shallan the sun is going to do something don't give it ideas]

[Not sure I like dalinar not wanting to abolish slavery]

[Syl is acting way to child-like around kal's parents maybe it kraimore portraile]

[OK I and many people aren't 100% on navanie being the second bondsimith but watching her with her engineers is too bondsimith to ignore]

[The brief for the lasting integrity mission makes it sound real simple]

["I'm more worried about him changing you" book 5 foreshadowing if we lose]

["thank you mother, thank you for my eyes" every time I pass this part I want to jump out of my seat and make a Reddit post about how stupid it is that no one as far as I've seen says that they enlightened variants are revived dead eyes]

[Did they think that Zou was cursed by adonalsium or some other Shard/dragon]

[I know alot of people are disappointed in adolin's lack of a clear personal victory making him a "man" and having the trial end with Maya's words but it's in line with adolin he doesn't want to be radiant least wants to find his own way into it]

[Kate reading makes pattern sound like little baby Boi but Michael Kramer makes him sound like a creepy glitch]

[man I love godeki's little speech about the almighty it is nice to see Honor can live again indeed my deer edgedancer]

[And now we get to parts I don't like so much about shallan's DID they all talk with each other and blab and argue idk I don't like that for a split personality]

[I just got to the scene with noral and Kal and that ardent and damn is it very Kaladin. I love it and ya it probably won't be a big focus for Kal in 5. But maybe we can see his ideas descend into a more. Complete form in the back 5]

[I love how all of the radiant spren of our main characters are famous except ivory as far as I know] then again the fool who left seems to be his reputation szeth's is probably normal and dull

[The way shallan integrates her lightweavers could be seen as her trying to help them with their oaths][Like genuinely shallan trying to interrogate byral just sounds like her trying to put the talented kid up into a more leadership level position]

[I love adolin's sword fights they are always much better action than the radiants probably because they are rarer]

[I do kind of hate the misdirected with pattern being shallan's childhood spren but it's sort of nessary] [Idk why people think lerin is unreasonable I find him to be very easy to understand]

["You act like it's as inevitable as the sun and strom" ya syl] i keep side-eying mentions of the sun

[I like Kal not thinking of himself or rather thinking of others first]

[Vyre he who quites he who halls rocks. Els probably dying at that]

[I love lifts Interlude though I'm not sure how to read some bits So about lift's boon is she stuck with the mind of a child? Did she get nothing but was ancered more to reality? Is she primed to become more cultivationy than cultivation? Is she the holder of the three shards?] lift's werid and idk what to think of her future

[I love nail's flash back it's just so interesting what was the kid about? It must have been either one of the first of the aimians the ones like axi or maybe a half singer half human]

["His closeness to my father" son of tanavast intensifies. Also that one name of the wind quote where Kvoth's dad asks his wife if she fucked a wandering God but with lirin and hassina]

[I don't like Kramer's portraile of wit this book it far too whimsical]

[Renarin's vision doesn't bode well for book 5 ]

[I really like ulim the little basterd]

[What does rabonial think the opposite of life light?]

[OK why does Kate reading go British during one of the flashbacks]

[What order do you think the mink would be? Dustbringer?]

[the stormfather'talk of connection seems a little suspicious after knowing he can lie]

[I feel the only way for the radiants to win in book 5 is for dalinar not to be the champion]

[This might be a hot take but I feel annoyed I don't see people shipping dalinar and teravangian as much as navanie and rabonel it feels wrong to ship one and not the other]

[Was the void spren around relain tuilm or what ever his spren is called]

[This whole shaping business is part of the ba ado mishram puzzle or rather the other way around anyway it goes down to that I think in the last desolation oduim was finally linked to roshar the same way honor and cultivation are and now to acsess shaping you need to be of all three and able to sing the rhythms]

[Lil gav would make a great sky breaker]

[Nail knowing ulim is interesting...]

[What the hell does hoid do to enter oduim's vision]

[Vneli is just what navanie thinks she is... Kind of sad]

[Who made the stormfather laugh? The boot maker]

[Is toduim's question about who hoid would choose the important part?]

#the stormlight archive #cosmere #stormlight archive #brandon sanderson #dalinar kholin #kaladin stormblessed #shallan davar #reread #this is too long i will salvage part of this into other posts maybe later

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pocketramblr · 3 years

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i'm afraid of falling into another rabbit hole but by this point i'm super curious so if it's ok can i ask you what it is the stormlight archive?

oh yes anon, you may absolutely ask... actually yes, come just a bit closer too... yes, closer...

Anyway, The Stormlight Archive is an epic fantasy series inside another, larger fantasy series, The Cosmere. If you’ve heard of Mistborn, that’s in the Cosmere too, just on a completely different planet. Stormlight focuses on one planet, Roshar, where hurricane level storms regularly blow across the continent and everyone just kinda has to deal with it. Magic, or Investiture, comes in two main forms- Stormlight, which is replenished by those storms i mentioned and stored in gems for light and power, and Spren, which are basically manifestations of how people perceive concepts- wind spren are little silvery ribbons and leaves blowing around, awe spren are puffs of blue smoke around surprised people’s heads, and shame spren are petals that blow around you when you’re embarrassed. I’ll be honest, its a very anime aesthetic between the spren sfx and the giant swords people are swinging around.

Plotwise, Stormlight is about a lot of things- Kaladin’s a character with chronic depression even before his tragic backstory, and how he copes with that varies over the books while also being that Fantasy Hero Who’s Driven To Protect People. Dalinar is a character trying to fix a country thats constantly spiraling into war and figuring out what he actually believes in, Shallan is juggling arcs about saving her family, realizing where she is privileged and how to be better, and figuring out her own neurodivergence. Adolin is sunshine incarnate trying to figure out his own morality from the shadow of his father’s rather strict view of the world, and Renarin... i can’t say much about him without spoilers, but he’s just a gem of a character. There’s also overarching plots about war, colonialism, racism, ableism, how absolutely crucial intersectionality is for making anything better, gender roles in various societies, religion, a bit of romance but not a lot and not for every single character. oh, and lotsa found family. OH, and people’s eyes glow when they use magic powers, which. i’m utterly weak for.

This series has, by the end of the fourth book, at least one canonical trans character, a canonical ace character, a canon bi/pan character- and a second ‘twitter confirmed’ bi character, a canon gay man and his boyfriend, another canonical mspec man, a character with the best written depression i have ever seen, a character with anxiety, an autistic character, a character with DID, a paraplegic, a character with body dysphoria, a character with adhd, a character who is mute, and..... ok there’s more rep i cant think of right now, but there’s also a lot of buildup that seems like at least two more characters, if not three or four also hinted at and whatever new characters come in, will be coming out of the closet by the end of the series. The women are, imo, better written than in other fantasy books even by this author (who is Brandon Sanderson, aka Brando Sando, aka Branderson, aka the Sandman, aka Writing Machine Go Brrr. we have a lot of nicknames for him.) There’s also only one main character who would be considered white on earth, though being on a fictional planet the fictional races don’t have a 1:1 match- the Makabaki would probably look Afro-Asian to most of us, the Alethi east Indian or Polynesian, etc.

The thing about all of that- the magic system, the worldbuilding, the characters, the plot, the representation- its all good, but, and this might be important for you: its all slowburn. Very slowburn. the books are HUGE, as in they can’t even be published as one single book in europe, and by the time they got to the third book they had to switch to thinner paper so they could keep it in one volume in the states. Kaladin’s the MC and main POV character in the first book, and he’s not even in the prelude, the prologue, or 90 percent of the first chapter! this is the slowest of burns, and we’re only 4 books published of 10- though there are also 2 novellas, taking place right after book 2 and book 3. But i enjoy slowburn, and i really enjoy fantasy series. So i would recommend it. If any of this has appealed to you... come read it too. just jump down the rabbit hole. come into my little box trap.

#whoops that was a lot of words #anon #pocket talks to people

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kingjasnah · 3 years

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Blasian anon again. I think you missed my point but I also think that's because I didn't explain myself properly. Redzit and Shart I think are a lost cause (except that the mods of shart are actually pretty chill from the interactions I've had) but on here, things aren't great either. Tumblr artists see the whitewashing and over-correct, erasing the biracial aspect of a lot of characters. I'll keep using Shallan as an example bc we're the closest ethnicity wise, but so many artists straight up ignore she's supposed to look biracial. Inspo boards might only take her mixed race into account when it comes to her hair, but ignore that she might have a Japanese nose and white people lips (either in shape or color or both). And this is maybe kind of minor, but using Korean faces as her blueprint maybe isn't great. I don't know a lot of Koreans who would be happy with people thinking they are interchangeable with Japanese (because the history between us is not great). We do look similar, but we're also different.

Not enough tumblr artists are looking at biracial japanese faces when they're crafting their Shallan. And her biracial aspect can't be erased when plucking her from Roshar and putting her in modern Earth aus. She would deal with intense racism and othering. Some hyper sexualization and infantization, people here ignore all of that when taking her into account. And in doing so, contribute to this "pick an ethnicity" bs that a lot of us biracial people deal with all the time. But I think people here are more open to taking that criticism and changing than on other platforms.

As for Sanderson, I'm actually working on a letter to send to him outlining how important it is to double down on the fact that most of roshar isn't white. I've found more private interactions regarding race are more productive, so this isn't something I'd be posting on one of the other popular sites. But like, it would be nice if with the WoR leatherbound, we got an improved Kaladin cover and Shallan endpapers that better reflect her mixed race appearance. Pairing that with something in the acknowledgements about why it was important to correct this, that could go a long way, since not all the fans who purchase that merch are super active on the forums. But if anyone has suggestions of points to include in this letter I'm working on, I'd love to see them.

......okay i see what you are saying. so i absolutely agree with you that when using references for shallan people should look to biracial models but I think it's difficult to declare overcorrectness in fanart cause of how varied those models actually look. i also think im kinda out of my lane here? so grain of salt I guess if anyone who is mixed wants to weigh in on this

i will say that there's a bit of a thing with shallan (and renarin) where people have pointed out their epicanthic folds are respected but they're not for a lot of darker skinned characters who also are supposed to have them...and for renarin I think a lot of that has to do with the east asian infantilization you mentioned. with shallan I feel like this is the case because shallan not being white has been very present on tumblr for years to the point where people are more likely to call out a whitewashed shallan than anyone else.

now ive not seen any modern aus talk about real life racism at all but then again: i don't read fic and i do agree writing a modern shallan shouldn't erase her race

i think a letter is a smart idea though. he is relatively receptive to crit imo and he's So online here definitely seen some of this stuff but.....yeah it's not super fun posting crit that's about both something personal and something systematic on a public forum when you know it's gonna get blasted. id kill for a proper kaladin wor cover

#im sorry i know this is unfocused on second thought i probably should be answering Heavy asks at home #like anon im still not 100% clear here but on god you deserve to be able to vent abt ur specific experiences here so. power to you i guess #asks #sanderson critical

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elhokar-kholin · 2 years

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Elhokar (I have no idea who he is) for the send me a character post

preamble for you who is my Lazytown mutual (a brief introduction to Elhokar Kholin):

- Stormlight Archive is a fantasy series but there are no elves or conventional wizards or other things you typically associate with fantasy as a genre, the magic system is hard meaning it is based off a firm set of rules. the books are very long but i love them more than anything. it is extremely well written and detailed

- Alethkar is where Elhokar is from. he is the king of Alethkar which is a country in Roshar (the continent). Alethkar is kind of based of medieval mongolia but theres lots of differences but like technology era thats where they are

- Elhokar is a shit-ass king in a Warren G Harding sort of way which is to say lots of people think he's a nice guy at a personal level but he's stupid as hell and ends up surrounding himself with corrupt people who use him to change legislation and other various abuses of power and he is just not good at understanding for himself what is a Good thing and what is a Bad thing and ends up doing plenty of bad things sometimes feeling its bad but doing it anyway

- Elhokar is extremely paranoid of assassins and the anxiety can get in the way of a lot of things, but other times he is very reckless in making decisions and that blows up in his face a lot too

- he's. i don't know if he's a good or a bad person i've tried to figure it out but i haven't yet. stormlight archive is a book full of morally grey characters and he's not outstandingly bad or good in comparison he's just sort of there

- In My Brain like i could pull evidence from the books and try and make a case for it but In My Brain he is gay and also has some gender stuff going on

First impression - i hated him. this does not really mean much though because i hated everyone when i first read the way of kings (first book of series). i made a deal with my brother that he would learn aleinn um jolin on the piano (which he DIDN'T btw) if i read the first book of his favorite book series and i was like jesus fuck this book is long ugh better start chugging through it. i didn't think i liked reading or fantasy or long books and it took me until about halfway through to stop hating it and start reading it for the sake of reading it. but until then i hated Everyone in the books except kaladin because i felt really bad for him. after i slipped the slide from being begrudgingly hooked to liking it to being obsessed i didnt care about elhokar very much for the first readthrough. i was played like the first reader fiddle. i was mad at him when i was supposed to be mad and i was happy and sad when i was supposed to be those things. nothing special going on there

Impression now - this man is my science project my research project my test subject i think about him every day and night and his oddities. i talk about him very often. he is very fun to play around with so i do. he did good things he did bad things but he was cut off before his trajectory could continue and so i like wondering about the parts we didnt get to see, the before, the after, the in betweens even since he never had a POV.

Favorite moment - So many things I could go for here. if we're talking sheer amount of time talking about one event, its the words of radiance sanderlanche aka wor 80 and 82, for various reasons that are due to it being HILARIOUS and it also being a REALLY important turning point for his character. i also talk about him getting transgenderized in ob 61 a lot too because well im just very glad it happened like there was absolutely no reason for it to and yet it did so I'll Take It. there are a lot of elhokar moments i like though

Idea for a story - one that's been rattling around my brain for months that i never wrote was The Adventures of Lalai the Scribe, which basically lalai is elhokar's scribe and every chapter would be her dealing with having to scribe some stupid ass thing elhokar wants written down it would be very non serious and stupid and just fun then later it deals with how she got fired after the way of kings and what she does after

Unpopular opinion - i don't know what you people believe about elhokar so i don't know whats unpopular or not large scale trust me i've tried to figure out the fandom views as well but for the most part its just a lot of either pointing out obvious stuff or making a theory or interpretation that can be disproved with quotes from the book and most things that are not that are like sure ok i suppose. im gonna disagree with the part of the fandom who are elhokar apologists and also the way the book frames him and his actions as in no way being his fault. the books also do a weird amount of making comparisons of him to a "child" or a "boy" and i think that rubbed off on some people so im also gonna say elhokar is not your """"baby"""" or your """"son"""" or whatever he is a 27 year old man stop being weird about him (though on this platform at least it seems to have died down which is good). im also going to disagree with people who say he's irredeemable and terrible and no good evil etc etc IF they are not like this about every person who is as bad or worse than him. YES he killed 2 innocent people. but if you're chill with dalinar then i dont want to hear it. if you're chill with raboniel i don't want to hear it. if you're making a fuss about elhokar but are a okay with navani then you're not doing it because he's a bad person you're doing it because you don't like him. which you're allowed to do!!! but let's not pretend you're making an argument from a moral basis when its clearly from a personal opinion on his personality just admit you're dunking on him because you don't like him and not because he's exceptionally terrible. so that's 2 based on what i've seen from #elhokar apologists and #elhokar haters

Favorite relationship - all his relationships are interesting and i like analyzing them all but the one that easily gives me the most entertainment is his relationship with kaladin. they are so weird. i can't stop staring at it.

Favorite headcanon - other than the sexuality and gender ones uhhh see this is hard because the line between headcanon and how-i-interpret-the-text can be thin but for something i have no proof for he draws and/or has drawn in his spare time in secret i mean i guess i could pull one piece of evidence for that but i think it still counts as a hc

#long post #ask #stupid in chief #my posts

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radiantmists · 3 years

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ooooh i'd love to hear your thoughts on an rqg and stormlight crossover!

absolutely.

(send me 2+ fandoms and i’ll give you thoughts on crossing them over)

okay so first of all I’ve thought about this just a little already, in that i saw a significant link between zolf’s new ethos, the whole not-hope what-comes-next thing, and the first ideal, especially as presented in Oathbringer. The radiant orders in general actually feel like... especially codified paladins/clerics, where you get powers in exchange for subscribing to a certain set of ideals.

so i cheated a little and consulted a conversation i had on the rqbb server about radiant orders for the party; using that plus this radiant order guide, i came up with the following:

sasha’s an edgedancer. this is the one i’m most sure about; the slid-ey powers fit, but ‘remembering those who’ve been forgotten’ is also very sasha, especially with her Good End being starting an orphanage. plus she just has The Vibe, you know?

grizzop would make sense as a skybreaker, extremely lawful good and focused on justice, defending the innocent and punishing the guilty. also the idea of him being able to fly brings the chaos gremlin in me joy.

I’d make hamid a dustbringer, honestly because the description in the link above fits the narrative i’d like him to have, regarding the importance of responsibility and self-mastery as one’s destructive power grows.

cel i’m less confident on, but i think i’d go with willshaper; there’s a focus on personal freedom and self-expression, liberation from tyranny, and the order also has an association with creators. (if ppl have thoughts on this lmk because i dont have that great of a handle on cel tbh)

sidenote, skraak would definitely be a willshaper too.

azu is... difficult. i want her to have regrowth as a surge because i feel like healing is a really important thing for her, and she does kinda vibe as an edgedancer... but the stonewards’ focus on dependability and team dynamics, their refusal to bend their ideals, and even just the minor bits like interest in athletics just really fits for her, so i’d have to go with that. i guess kaladin has healing as a central part of his character without it being a surge, so... yes. stoneward. go read the description, the more i think about this the more it seems Correct.

and finally, zolf. the source of so many headaches, i do not understand this man. i can kinda see him as a windrunner, stoneward, skybreaker, or bondsmith, but i’m not confident with any of them. i would lean toward bondsmith just because both the source above and the textual evidence we have with dalinar and navani suggest that bondsmiths are hard to categorize, as far as values, other than them being leaders.

but the question of zolf brings me to a big question-- would they all be radiants? i think they would all have the potential, certainly, any one of them has enough bullshit in the backstory to have cracks that would allow a nahel bond, and enough determination to speak the first ideal and mean it. but that doesn’t mean they’d all attract/bond spren, and i havent even decided how, if at all, i’m dealing with the whole humans vs. singers thing.

(adding a readmore discussing where i see zolf going bc it’s getting long)

but, uh, here’s something rough: i think zolf would pull a baby-shallan and kill his first spren. probably, this would be a highspren; early zolf is very strongly dedicated to the idea of an unbendable truth, divine justice. and i think his point of breaking might even be similar to his questioning of poseidon in canon, because stormlight/cosmere actually engages with the question of “how does someone become a god,” and the answer is “by killing the old one” which very much would not qualify them to be an arbiter of justice in zolf’s eyes.

i think stormlight!zolf would find out that honor is dead, along with the revelation about humans being the invaders (if that’s still what’s going on in this crossover), and have a paris-equivalent breakdown about what ‘the right thing’ or ‘justice’ even mean. he wouldn’t believe in his ideals anymore, he’d ‘kill’ his spren, and that would make his spiral a lot worse.

i’m not sure what would happen from there.

it’s possible that he’d wake his highspren again by speaking a higher ideal the way kaladin does, though i’m still not perfectly clear on the mechanics of that; zolf actually does still have the dedication to punishing the guilty, he just doesn’t look for an external code as the source of justice anymore, and that’s actually consistent with some higher skybreaker ideals. but he doesn’t really vibe with the whole ‘order and codified law’ thing.

i can see him returning as a bondsmith, but in an awkward sort of situation similar to navani’s, where the spren isn’t fully comfortable with him and he’s doing it largely out of need. but also i don’t want that for him?? his turn in canon to the new source of power feels like it was good for him, and i’d want to do something equivalent, and this feels like it would be almost self-destructive.

but as i was noodling around on the orders explanation page, i noticed this in the description of bondsmiths: “Beyond that, many of the retinues that protected the Bondsmiths were considered members of the Order–going so far as to swear oaths, even though they didn’t have a spren and never would. Some even called this the most pure form of being a Radiant, because these were oaths sworn not in the name of gaining powers, but simply for the good of the oaths themselves.”

and my brain lit up at that, bc you know whose arc is about growing as a person and dedicating themselves to uniting people and leading? wilde. so i’m imagining wilde becoming a bondsmith, and zolf not bonding a new spren but swearing the first ideal in spirit because that is genuinely what he believes, and just being part of wilde’s team, keeping him safe as a regular human/maybe having some squire powers.

WELL i’ve done a lot of thinking about orders and almost none about plot or even actual character backstories, but I’ve spent a while on this. i’m very likely to come back to this because rqg is definitely my current Main Fandom and (as you can tell from the url) the cosmere is my beloved, so... yes.

#rqg #stormlight archive #crossover ask game #at this point i could still place them alongside canon stormlight characters #or have them replace them narratively #and im not sure which i would go for yet #almost certainly more to follow #if i replace ppl hamid is probably some equivalent to a kholin #...dragons are Juicy in cosmere setting though #hmmmmmm

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st-just · 3 years

Text

Semi-coherent thoughts on Words of Radiance

Okay, continuing my efforts to force some actual reflection out of my brain on things I read via posting. In general, I think I liked Words of Radiance a decent bit more than Way of Kings? But, well, I suppose it’s fairer to say that I loved Shallan’s arc (and am now firmly invested in her as Best Protagonist), actually found Dalinor, like, more than mildly interesting this time, Szeth got something like a character arc and Kaladin...well, mostly spent the book moping and struggling with a moral dilemma that, like, it’s really not the kind of book where there was ever a chance he’d break in the other direction, is there?

Though, honestly, in terms of worldbuilding I’m mainly absolutely fascinated by the hints of Parshendi history and theology we get, because I’m always naturally sympathetic to any mythos that starts from the premise ‘our gods were assholes and we are better off without them’. Really quite sad that it seems like all the survivors are the ones who turned into lightning-orcs, but as much as ‘two hurricanes running into each other and destroying the canyon network they were travelling across’ sounds deadly, I kind of doubt the dissenters would get all that buildup just to get killed offscreen? So hopefully we meet them again soon.

Shallan’s plotline was just absurdly entertaining (look, I like protagonists living double lives and keeping important secrets from their friends and allies, okay?) As I’ve mentioned previously, Tyn was great and I’m very sad that she only survived like 100 pages. Sebarial is also easily the most likeable and entertaining aristocrat we’ve yet met, and generally I always the whole archetype of ‘cowardice, decadence and sloth hiding patience, foresight and good government’ as far as characters with power/influence go. Also, the twist behind the masses of childhood trauma and abuse was something I honestly legitimately didn’t see coming, and I am actually curious to see what the story is, and which of the...several nefarious conspiracies she was tied up in as an infant.

That said, maybe I’m just being paranoid, but if Oathbringer has a subplot about a love triangle between Adolin, Kaladin and her, I’m throwing the book out of a window.

Speaking of the nefarious conspiracies, so, like, most of their goals are fairly clear. The Men of Honour are millenarians trying to cause an apocalypse to bring about the Second Coming, the Diagram is just literally Cauldron from worm, the Darkness guy from the interlude who may or may not be associated with them is killing spren-bounded people out of some optimistic magical thinking about how the apocalypse works. But I’m really very curious about what exactly the Ghostbloods are hoping to get out of the end of the world. Possibly they’re just evil cultists of evil, but that seems a bit hard to justify, so presumably there’s at least some self-interest involved?

Regarding the Diagram, I do really like the whole conceit of Taravangian’s whole, like, deal? It’s an interesting blessing/curse, even if it doesn’t actually make any sense in some particulars (at peak efficiency he’s a sufficiently insightful political genius to engineer the collapse into anarchy and bloodless (for him) annexation of a much larger neighbouring kingdom, but incapable of understanding why ordering the stupider half of his subjects to kill themselves might not work out?). Anyway, I forget who said I’d like his character, but you were right.

(Tangentially; Look, I know coming up with a suitable grandiose and ominous name for your grand and sinister god of evil is hard. But Odium is just kind of a stupid name, I’m sorry!)

Kaladin this book was, well, being perfectly honest he didn’t really seem to do too much, beyond fighting Szeth? I don’t know, I never really find the whole struggling with a philosophical dilemma and soul searching too interesting when there’s clearly no chance that the narrative is going to let him come down on a certain side of it. Just, Sanderson really doesn’t strike me as the sort of author who has his protagonist cast aside his superpowers and oaths to allow regicide through inaction for the good of the kingdom, you know?

Really the whole thing with the struggle to live up to the radiant ideal and the importance of honor kind of reminded me of the one really famous bit from Hogfather, though that might just be the season and the number of times I’ve scrolled past it on my dashboard recently. Though Roshar’s a rather less existentialist setting than Discworld, of course – there are quite literally atoms of justice and molecules of mercy, and they’d probably rather take offence to you grinding the universe down to powder and pouring it through a sieve – but there’s the whole similar thing about the importance of living up to ideals and codes, even if they seem somewhere between absurd and actively harmful?

Dalinar and Adolin’s whole noble intrigue plotline was enjoyable enough to read, though it is extremely funny that Sadeus considers himself some master of intrigue when there’s multiple cults and conspiracies a few steps deeper in the shadows seeing far further than he even realizes he should be looking. (Also, to be totally fair to the asshole, it really does seem pretty suspicious that all the suddenly appearing high fantasy superheroes are intimately tied to the household of exactly one of the high nobility? And that same noble then claiming leadership of a refounded militant religious order with miraculous powers and vague but broad authority, in addition to his position as royal grand marshal, really does read as a blatant power grab.)

Anyway, between the brightly colored costumes, super-powers, dramatic compound names and remote stronghold only accessible via teleportation, it is really far too amusing to me how similar the Knights Radiant are to the Justice League.

#books #words of radiance #stormlight archive #cosmere #brandon sanderson #in this essay I will #this is theoretically a writing blog

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shipmistress9 · 3 years

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D E F G H I J K L M N O P, Q R S T U V, W X Y and Z 😇😉. I sung the alphabet while writing this as well 😂. You don’t have to answer all of them though, just pick which ones you want 😊.

🤣🤣🤣

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.

My fandom life would be easier if I liked Heathstrid at least a little bit... But I can’t and I don’t really want to, either...

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

The oneshots Spin The Bottle and Pick Me Up.

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom?

Given that I only learned about the existence of fandom as a concept in late 2016, the longest I’ve ever been in a fandom is roughly 4,5 years.

G - Have you ever had an OTP? If so, do you remember your first one? Who was in it?

Many! Currently it’s Hiccstrid and Hicretstrid. And maybe a little Zelink. But thinking back, I think my very first OTP was when I was around five years old. From the Captain Tsubasa anime series, Tsubasa and... I don’t even know her name... 🤣 There was this girl who always cheered him on and was his no.1 fan. ANd in hindsight, I think I also shipped Tsubasa... with nearly all other players, mainly, Taro Misaki, Jun Misugi, and Kojiro Hyuga. 🤣

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?

TV-shows, mostly. I prefer the visuals over books and I prefer the slower development over those in movies.

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

Not caused me to stop liking them. But in some cases (ATLA and TDP, to name two) it raised my expectations so high that, when I finally got to dip into them, I was rather underwhelmed. It also didn’t help that I already knew the ending and some major plot points. If there’s one sure way to dampen my excitement it’s spoilers.

J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)

Supernatural. Pretty much all other fandoms I dip into occasionally, I knew at least a little before. But literally everything I know about Supernatural is from seeing posts here. 🤣

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

I can’t think of an individual character right now, but in general an arc I like is someone (re-)learning to trust.

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.)

Snotlout has a great relationship with his dragon. Valka, too. Gobber and the twins are always fun, in their own ways.

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

Already answered before.

Hmm... First, I wanted to say Astrid. And I'd enjoy having her as a friend, as someone to challenges me to be more active, to work on my skills and someone to talk.

But I think, I'd enjoy being friends with Hiccup, too. I'd like to brainstorm ideas, ponder over inventions and exchange ideas. Geek out about dragons!

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

Acceptance, respect, and some common sense. But that’s not just fandom...

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

My very long list of favoured songs randomly gave me 9 Crimes by Damien Rice. There once was an absolutly stunning AMV with this song about the TV-show The Legend Of The Seeker, The Sword Of Truth (based on the books by Terry Goodkind). I was deeply in love with Richard’s and Kahlan’s relationship, and with Cara on a general level. That AMV featured them all, and I loved it!

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

Oh, oh, oh, oh! I just thought about this modern meet-cute AU for Hiccstrid a few days back, might as well write it down here. (And will also copy it over into an individual post, I think...)

Hiccup is a single father of a three-years-old daughter. One day, he meets Astrid in a supermarket; she’s in front of him at the check-out and when he hears her voice, he’s stunned. Because he knows her voice, hears it every day. Because she lend her voice to one of these talking toys for toddlers.His daughter’s favourite toy.

Hiccup always liked that toy best, too, because it didn’t sound as annoying as most others. Pleasant even. When he sees and hears Astrid, he recognises her voice in an instant. He jokingly thanks her for making his days more bearable. She’s confused, who is this weirdo? So he tries to explain. “The toy. My daughter’s toy. It’s your voice. A pleasant voice. I listen to it every day.” He keeps getting weirder, stammers, turns red like a tomato, until he eventually just flees, wishing a hole would open up to swallow him, that was so embarrassing.

Meanwhile, Astrid is touched. Knowing that there is at least one little girl who likes the toy she helped create. And her father, apparently. Who had been cute. In how shy he’d been. And how excited. She’s sorry he left before she was able to talk to him and thank him.

Over the next days, Hiccup would think of her a lot. Every time he hears her voice again, he’d think of her. Her face. Her smile. Until they, eventually, meet again... ^^

Q - A fandom you’ve abandoned and why.

Answered before

None, really. There are several fandoms I grew out of, like Sailor Moon or Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne. But I wouldn't say I abandoned them. I still enjoy seeing content about them.

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

Those of the rider with their dragons. Hiccup&Toothless. Astrid&Stormfly.

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

Pretty much all of my headcanons are about Hiccstrid in one way or combination. One of my personal favourites is that Astrid has a tiny birthmark on the back of her neck. She doesn’t even know it’s there, she can’t see it and it’s almost always covered by her hair anyway. But Hiccup knows it’s there. And he loves to place a kiss on it. It tickles and would always make her giggle. And she smells so nice.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

*snorts* No. If there are people who don’t share my headcanons, then... they don’t have to? I can live and be friends with people regardless of whether we share the same headcanons or not. And if people keep attacking me for mine, I’ll just block them and walk away. Arguing about something like that is not worth my time.

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Astrid. HTTYD.

erm...

uh...

I really have difficulties thinking of favourites from any other fandoms here! xD

uhm...

Princess Zelda from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Kaladin Stormblessed from the Stormlight Archives.

I might have a type here. Brave, strong, not always easy to deal with. Fiercely loyal. Stubborn. Proud. Honourable. that’s all three of them. ^^

V - Which character do you relate to most?

Same answer as the above, mostly. I think I already wrote a long answer to a similar question once. 🤔 I relate to Astrid in many ways. Loyal and reliable, not always easy to approach, often prefers to deal with her problems on her own instead of asking for help.

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

Anything jealously, especially it being portrayed as a sign of love or dedication. But also love triangles. Unnecessary.

Another thing I don’t like is when there’s a misunderstanding and they argue about it and get angry and yell and have a huge falling-out... when it all just boils down to them not listening.

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

Answered before.

Forbidden Romance. In any form. I just love the angsty tension it brings without the characters fighting or arguing about misunderstandings.

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

Supernatural, ATLA, TDP, MCU.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! (Prompts optional but encouraged.)

With all the critical thinking that’s encouraged in fandom culture, I wish more people would remember Ratatouille and this quote by Anton Ego.

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.”

-- Anton Ego (Ratatouille)

Or at least respect it. It’s called entertainment and not lecture about every little detail that is wrong with other people’s opinions. I get why it’s important to look deeper and question meanings and intentions, I really do. But sometimes, I’d prefer to at least occasionally just enjoy something without getting lectured by others for it.

_____

Thank you! 😘💜

#ask #drakaina-amore64 #ask game #long post

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basket-of-radiants · 4 years

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I have many thoughts about KLM, I don't know where to start. They range from how the other two are going to react to Kal being benched (I mean one day he just stops showing up to fights) to an AU where Venli is captured alongside her Lady, by enemy Captain Stormblessed and is lost as to why Leshwi bantering/flirting with him. When her Lady's knight arrives to save them he just kinda curls up on Stormblessed's lap complaining about not being part of the initial kidnapping, confusing Venli more.

Thank you for talking to me about this.

1) I absolutely love how you’ve placed Venli as a fourth wheel in this gang (but imo she would not be confused, just exasperated like “oh god you guys are really doing this, you realize I’m still here right, you want me to translate what for him, fuck me and fuck your passions I guess this is happening.”)

2) I can’t really imagine a scenario wherein Leshwi gets captured unless it’s on purpose somehow, in which case Vyre showing up to “rescue” her would be even funnier.

3) I recognize that K/L/M isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and normally when I subject you guys to massive walls of text it’s for dumb au’s involving cereal or roller skates or whatever and not shipping, so I’m gonna put a cut here before I absolutely Go Off.

Have I said. K/L/M as a knight/lady/dragon dynamic is the most perfect thing imaginable, particularly when it’s not the knight who belongs to the lady, but the dragon (INSPIRED casting for Moash), particularly when Leshwi can fill all three roles as the scene demands it, particularly when Kaladin views them both as The Enemy and they don’t view him that way.

Like, when played straight this relationship has so fucking much potential for drama and angst. Kaladin being in love with his enemies, knowing he has to fight them and trying to kill them but also knowing that if anything happened to them it would destroy him. Leshwi navigating court politics, as someone of her station consorting with a human would be scandal in of itself, but a Radiant as well? Plus trying to balance her passions for her people with those for her lovers. Moash turning himself into a monster for Leshwi’s sake, willingly becoming for her an agent of destruction but who still pines for Kaladin and would do anything not to hurt him again but who only ends up hurting him more. These three have all given up their personhood in different ways and have all become killers for the sake of others, and yet that personhood they willingly banish from themselves is what they cherish in one another. Emotionally charged fights. Combatively charged conversations. Love conquers all in the end. Or does it, maybe they’re doomed to be tragic, which also works really well.

Or if you don’t want to be all serious and want to play this fun, there are plenty of great ways to do that too. You can have Leshwi/Vyre as a power couple who keep setting one another up with a blushing and baffled Kaladin, who had really come here to fight or so he had thought, oh storms why are they smiling at him. You can have Vyre tell Leshwi all about Kaladin while holding her hand, and she goes off and sees him for the first time in a battle and afterwards Vyre is like “weeeeeell?~~” and Leshwi is like “you’re right, he’s pretty great.” You can have Kaladin confront him and say “Moash why would join Odium’s side” and he just points at Leshwi and Kaladin just says “you know what that’s fair.” (Wait I’m about to make a joke.) You can have Kaladin and Leshwi together and Kal is like “fuck Moash?” and Leshwi is like “oh absolutely” and Kaladin whistfully goes “yeah me too.” (There I made a joke, you’re laughing now.)

These three are the perfect trio for fight-flirting because they’ve all tried to kill each other in every combination on different occasions. Plus if you want to make it cute and light, nowadays they can all regenerate, so they’re fine. I also love the idea of them teasing each other over one another’s combat prowess. (M: “Wow Leshwi you treat all the guys who kill you like this?” L: “I mean yes, but also Kaladin has never actually beaten me, I lied.” M: “Really? Wow I guess I’m just better at fighting than both of you then ;)” K: “Oh yeah, do you want to step outside and fucking try me? ;)”)

Okay, I see your “Leshwi gets captured” au but what about one where Kaladin gets captured instead, like Lezian or someone are going to kill him and Leshwi makes a deal where if she can keep him safe if he’s her prisoner so she uses one of those suppressor fabrials. Maybe Vyre goes to talk to him and Kaladin knows he should just kill him but is still in love with him so he’s willing to hear him out anyway and then it turns out to have been a setup so you can have more tragic betrayals between them, but once he’s been captured Leshwi and Vyre still spend a lot of time with him and Kaladin is like “wait hold on, you two are actually important, can we negotiate for peace” and Leshwi’s like “neither of us are actually representatives of our respective sides” and Kaladin is pleading with her like “please, no one on my side believes talking to you is even possible but they’re wrong" and he tries to instill idealism into her jaded soul. And then eventually Leshwi agrees to try and she lets him go so he can arrange a meating from his end. Bonus points if he has to kill her in order to “escape” so that the other fused don’t think she’s a traitor. So he goes back to Uritiru or whatever. And even more bonus points if Vyre didn’t know about this plan and so he goes after him pissed that he killed Leshwi, and Kaladin is able to calm him down but it’s too late he’s been noticed, so the other humans are like “holy shit that’s the traitor” and Vyre is like “bite me” and Kaladin is trying to protect him while he’s being very hard to protect. Like Kaladin will panic and say something like “it’s okay he’s changed” and Vyre will be like “I have not and I am not sorry” and Kaladin is like “you are making my life so hard right now.” Anyway, Leshwi comes back obviously and eventually there’s a meeting and idk how it goes but Kaladin and Vyre and Leshwi probably elope at some point, and holy shit what am I doing.

God. How does writing fanfic work. Someone help. I think we need something longer form for this.

Another idea I like inspired by your ask is a Venli-centric story wherein she’s a personal courier to Leshwi and since her Lady has to keep up appearances (plus she’s too busy with her own political career), Venli is the one tasked with facilitating a secret courtship between her and Kaladin, an enemy knight. Moash is sent with her for protection and Venli 1) is confused by the chemistry he seems to have with both of them and 2) is growing increasingly exasperated by how the fairly utilitarian demands, decrees, and warnings she carries seem to be getting gushier every time she’s sent with a new one. It wouldn’t be so bad but Kaladin can’t fucking read so she has to read it all out loud to him and then write down his responses herself. Her escort seems unphased by the fact that the two people he fancies are obviously trading love letters. Venli just wants to help her people, okay? She doesn’t have time for this shit.

Honestly there’s a lot to explore insofar as a domestic relationship with these three too. I’m just imagining a scene where Leshwi starts humming something and Kaladin just turns to Moash and is like “...what is she saying” and Moash is just “uhhhh I think she’s sad about something-no wait--?” Or like, the dynamic of Moash being super casual about how he treats the relationship and Kaladin being super solemn and Leshwi being super passionate.

Or you could go for a thing where Moash is a classic bad boy who Kaladin is trying to bring back to the light except he kind of loves Leshwi and kind of wishes he was working with her too. I kind of also like Kaladin and Moash and Leshwi getting together with no parties being rehabilitated or changed or anything. (K: “I hate this guy.” M: “Okay, I’ll kill him for you then :)” K: “NO!!!!!!!!!!!” while Leshwi iweighs the argument of both those statements.)

There is just so much potential. You don’t understand. There’s so much.

#kaladinXleshwiXmoash #shipping #this is not the kind of off the rails ramble i tend to post. it's waayyyyyyyy more off the rails for one.#anon...they're good.....#thank you for talking at me about them #do so any time #row spoilers #in the ask :p #Anonymous

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irithyllians · 3 years

Note

for tama, past: 2, 10, present: 5, 13, future: 4, 8

PAST

2) Which social class did they belong to growing up? How did it affect them?

He’s a darkeyed Alethi, so... low. His mother is actually lighteyed! And uh, terrifying! I’m not gonna pretend to fully understand people like her, but she chose to raise Tama, when her lighteyed family members recommended pretending he was stillborn. I think it’s partly because a child would be required to love her, and couldn’t leave (yikes). She made a good show of pretending to be a loving mother in public, but in private she’d dart between being sickly sweet and violent, with no warning. He’s been mentally AND physically scarred by her. This resulted in Tama being very much fixated on rules, order, and certainty as he grew up, because his childhood was so chaotic and uncertain (just btw, Del ends up killing her and taking teen Tama to Urithiru. I love Skybreakers). None of his family was particularly inclined to defend him, when criticized or attacked (especially by his cousins), which has given him a very strong “defend the underdog” instinct.

10) What did they dream of doing when they grew up? How and why did it change, if it did?

I’d love to say something dramatic here but I’m gonna be real with you, he wanted to be a pirate. That desire to explore and escape is still there, but his priorities have definitely changed.

PRESENT

5) What kind of people do they usually interact with? Who are their friends, the people they look up to/trust, and who are their “associates”?

He’s usually drawn to people that are no-nonsense and brutally honest. Before acquiring a little more self worth, he was drawn to a lot of rather cruel people, just because he appreciated knowing what he was signing up for. BUT, as his life improves, upon getting therapy from Kaladin and becoming Del’s squire:

Kaladin -- upon bringing Tama to Urithiru, Del dragged him kicking and screaming to see Kaladin for therapy. An uphill battle, but one Kaladin is very familiar with, lmao. It takes a hell of a long time, but Tama comes to respect and trust Kaladin. Before he knew it, he was confiding in Kaladin, and I’m smug about it

Del -- his mentor, and as he discovers, almost a mirror image of himself and his issues. This is not always a good thing, and makes them both very uncomfortable a lot of them time RIP, but their bond is unbreakable. Prior to this realisation, he was TOO respectful. There isn’t exactly a guidebook for dealing with the woman that slaughtered your abusive mother in a court of law. He appreciates how open and truthful she is, good or bad, and they grow closer as he becomes more confident and starts questioning actions she takes that he doesn’t agree with. Found fambly... they’re important to me ;-;

Par -- oh boy they did NOT get along at first, lmaooooooo (ngl, I think Tama was attarcted to him almost immediately tho). Del travels with him all over Roshar, but spends a lot of time in Rall Elorim helping Moash and Oro run Light in Shadow, and Moash recommends their squires train together. They clash a LOT, because Tama is so focused on order, and Par on chaos. Typical Skybreaker/Dustbringer conflict. But he comes to see (thank u Del you nerdy little empath) that much like their Orders share a Surge, they also share values, and their differences complement each other. They grow to trust each other, despite their scars, and that trust eventually becomes love and NEITHER of them know how they managed to end up in this relationship sagdjhs

Lift -- Par introduces them and I swear she dials up the chaotic dumbass energy and pretends to trip near sheer drops JUST to give Tama a heart attack. But even Tama and the stick up his butt that makes him stand straight aren’t immune to her warmth, and good heart.

Moash -- yes I fully count on him surviving and he joins Light in Shadow as a Dustbringer in our canon, I will not be taking constructive criticism, congrats on your uncle figure, Tama.

Oro -- the grandma he never asked for. They love each other.

13) What’s the worst (in their mind) way their current situation could end up?

Aha, this list is extensive, but in simple words he still has nightmares about being back with his long dead mother, or anyone like her. He’s arguably seen “worse” as a Skybreaker, but I don’t think he’ll ever fear anything like he feared her. Del, Par and the few others dear to him have proven that they are nothing like her, but some scars run very deep.

He also fears becoming his mother, which Kaladin and Del have done their best to convince him will not happen. But it’ll take a lot of time, and a lot of convincing.

FUTURE

4) What’s something they were sure would happen in their future but didn’t?

I think he expects to fail, as a Skybreaker. His Order has to constantly tiptoe the line between being merciful and being cold. Del would have turned out to be a great mentor, but there’s only so much you can prepare a person for, Bonding Eleos, swearing to Light in Shadow, and becoming an official Skybreaker would have been terrifying for him.

Hm, I still don’t think he cares all too much about dying, himself, but as anyone would, he thought he’d lose the people dearest to him. Thankfully, we won’t know if they die until MUCH later, so even though death in unavoidable he doesn’t have to cross that bridge yet! :) right Sanderson? :)

8) Would they become a mentor figure for anyone?

Afdsghd, he’d say no in the present, but I think after a firm nudge (or 85) from Del, he will! He has a great deal to teach a squire, and one day he’ll see that because I, the creator, and everyone close to him, demand it.

#answered asks #moash #oc: tama #x: the surge of division #par #oc: del #this is so long would you believe I shortened it??#oc stuff

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pedantichoe · 3 years

Text

Rhythm of War spoilers under the cut

...

Perfect I’m glad that actually worked :)

1. WHAT THE NUTS?!2?:??:?:? I’VE LOST MY GOSHDANG MARBLES NOT TO MENTION SEVERAL PIECES OF MY SOUL AND ALL MY SANITY (clearly since I already said marbles r gone) HEAD IS EMPTY FELLAS

I’m honesty just still at a loss for words. The implications every major investiture-related reveal has are enormous. The light. The harmonies. The spren experiments??? Ishar what the eff word are you doing dude!??!???

I was under the delusion that there was going to be a mega battle between Moash and Kaladin at the end of the book that was gonna be Uber painful but then have that allow Kaladin to swear the fourth ideal (in my head it was smth like Dalinar v Odium in Oathbringer but I am aware that would be way too clean a parallel and branderson just doesn’t work like that). INSTEAD we got an altercation that caused me to BAWL MY EYES OUT FOR FOURTY-FIVE MINUTES

Some lead-up. Somewhere around the time Moash got the spren-killing dagger I could just feel an awful build-up of tension and anxiety. I may not be able to hear the rhythms of Roshar but let me tell you if I could..... I would be attuned to terrors m8. So anyways I knew shit was gonna go DOWN but I didn’t know exactly what. Then Moash got the knife and my brain was just like “if he kills Sylphrena....” but I was just like HHHHH GOTTA KEEP READING

I’ll need to go downstairs and actually grab my book at some point to make sure I have the timeline right but there was a point where I had to set the book down and do some breathing exercises and walk around a little. And then Oho boy. When Teft walked in and saw Moash I just... I lost it a little. And then what actually happened????? My dogs woke me up at 5 AM and as I’m struggling out of some weird cosmere-related dream I remember whag Moash did and I’m just sitting there in the dark dogs whining to go out -crying- because how could he do that how could he how could he

And I know at the start of the book when Godeke or whatever edgedancer came to get Kal out of the manor fire was standing in the doorway and Moash had some kind of.... bit of his soul? Smth??? Show a version of who he /could/ be (wait that wasn’t Renarin was it cuz that would make sense...... hmmmmmmmm). That COULD mean he will have some opportunity at redemption which. If there is ANYBODY I trust to do it well and with feeling, it’s Brandon, but also a huge part of me does NOT. WANT. HIM. REDEEMED. I want him crushed and broken in every way with the full weight of what he did bearing down upon him but also hhhhhhh I’m sure we will get smth much cooler than anything I could think up ANYWAY

Why are the splits between paragraphs getting so big tumblr what is wrong with you

See this one is normal

Okay ANYWAYS

Kaladin. Bitch this man is a LOT. he’s just. I think the thing I appreciate most about these books is that the heroes aren’t perfect. They’re often damaged. Feel broken. And IN that they expand upon their ideals and ultimately make the first one just such an inspiring message. Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.

So Kaladin. He is just uhhhh amazing??? What I think truly encapsulates what I love about him is when it’s just he and Syl and the stonecast statue of Teft. The sadness is still there and I know it hurts him so much. But the guilt? The ability to grow in your losses and find yourself stronger and more human and more understanding because of it??? Ultimately THAT is where Moash and Odium are wrong. Kaladin and Dalinar have found and CONTINUE to find how to grow in their pain. How to not just deal with, but ACCEPT and OWN their pain and sorrow. They are finding the peace that Odium would have brought through numbness and loss. I don’t really know how to phrase this exactly how I would like. But I’m proud of this message. Im glad for this message.

When Wit helps Kaladin into that warm bubble and tells him he will be warm again, that just hit. The message in these books is about oaths and ideals and promises. It’s about growing into something so much more than you ever could have dreamed, and NOT by giving up your pain or your guilt or your loss or your anger to someone who would leave you a shell as a byproduct. When Teft died he died full of hope. He knew he was forgiven. He didn’t lose to Moash, to Odium, to the moss or to anyone or anything else. He lived and died with Honor. And in doing so proved that the power to change existed within him. It just needed support. Like a small flame. You can’t leave it open to the winds, or it will extinguish, but it DOES need air. It does need to be stoked to grow. Teft did it. So can you.

I went on both Instagram and Snapchat to try and talk about how deeply connected I feel to these books and the messages and characters in them. I wasn’t nearly as eloquent as I would have liked. But at the end of the day I am so grateful for how I’ve been able to grow and change and be shaped by my trials and experiences. I didn’t spend this year in as dark of a place as Kaladin, but I did feel trapped and stuck. I felt like a failure. I felt weak and angry and like there was no way to get to where I had been. Like I couldn’t remember the words.

And not just this book, but so many things in my life have helped me to see that I am valid and I am growing and I will stumble and make mistakes but through it all, the oaths that I have made, and the ideals that I keep are what make me me, and will continue to temper my soul and my spirit as I go along this journey.

I don’t need everyone to love these books as much as I do. Or feel as strongly about the messages or be as affected by the characters, the plot, and the INSANELY good writing. But I hope everyone has, finds, and clings to what makes them warm. What brings them light. We all make mistakes. We all will continue to mess up. We need to be corrected and shaped and we need to grow and change. But I for one am sick of hating people on principle. I’m sick of the feeling in my stomach like the world is falling to shit and that nothing I do or say will ultimately have any positive effect. I’m sick of living in a shade-darker world where I hate everything and feel like I should hate everything. I’m sick of being angry.

As a related side note. As we get to know more about the shards I hope someone makes a “which shard of Adonalsium are you!” Quiz because that would be very interesting. As is?? This year I have been Odium. I am passionate. But I am angry. I am so so angry. And I don’t -want- to be so angry anymore. I want to have hope. I want to follow light. I want to CHOOSE life and strength and journey and I want to sacrifice what I need to to get there. Kaladin’s fourth ideal is recognizing he can’t save everyone. I want to follow the ideal that those out there deserving of love and compassion outweigh my need to feel angry and unjust at those that destroy those things. I’ll work on phrasing as I go. I’m not quite ready to swear it, but the words are coming. I can feel them.

What Maya did was reveal that in the darkest of times for Radiants and their bonds, there was a choice that was made. And -no one,- spren, god, or otherwise, can take away the fact that it was THEIR choice. It is my choice whom I serve. It is my choice what I sacrifice and what I hold on to. And I will not let the voices of those telling me I have to hate everything and everyone take charge over me.

I hope everyone out there finds their ideals. And keeps to them. And knows that there is hope and light and life. That there is strength before weakness. And courage before cowardice. And a journey before their destination.

And that ultimately, the most important words a person can say are: “I will do better.” And the most important step they can take is the next one.

Life before death. Always. Life before death.

#the pedant rambles on and on about ideals for 95 years and no one is surprised #pedantics #rhythm of war #rhythm of war spoilers #the stormlight archive #stormlight archive #stormlight archive spoilers #stormlight spoilers #row spoilers #cosmere #cosmere spoilers #cfsbf #fuck moash #life before death

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hunxi-guilai · 4 years

Note

So I'm very curious (and it has been a while since I've read any Cosmere, to my everlasting shame) - you said in the tags of a post that Xiao Xingchen and Dalinar Kholin hit a lot of the same character buttons for you. I was wondering if you'd be willing to go into more detail about that?

(in reference to the tags on this post)

oh man oh man anon, I would love to but I super cannot because that has mega Oathbringer spoilers

by which I mean I will happily keyboard smash, hang on a tick, let me just throw it under a cut

please note!!!! if you think you might ever read Brandon Sanderon’s Stormlight Archive!!!! stay away from this post!!!! because Stormlight Archive is incredible and part of the reason is because Oathbringer takes it onto a whole new level oh my god and you shouldn’t spoil it for yourself!

I’m SERIOUS we’re getting into spoilers now. It’s not too late to turn back and experience Stormlight Archive for the masterpiece it is

you still with me?

all right we’re doing this

so here’s the thing about Dalinar Kholin -- for books one and two, he is the epitome of the wise and capable leader; he’s reasonable, passionate, moral, experienced, even-handed, righteous to a fault, and actively trying to model himself off of the Way of Kings, aka the in-universe textbook on ‘how to be a good ruler/decent person 101.’ He follows through on his promises; he throws himself into battle; he fights for the downtrodden, the surrounded, the hopeless; he uses his goddamn Shardblade to dig a latrine; he refuses to play the backstabbing, deceptive games of politics and intrigue. He’s a really good dude who’s trying his goddamned best in a world rapidly going to shit.

And then in book three, you find out who he was before the events of Stormlight Archive. You find out his history as a bloodthirsty, brutal warlord; the long, long laundry list of war crimes he’s committed; his frankly astonishing lack of moral compass. He spends his youth and adulthood honing himself into a weapon, and wreaks complete and total destruction wherever Gavilar points him. He becomes an alcoholic, a terrible father, a person who has to either fight or drink in order to stay sane -- two things that are becoming increasingly less sustainable as Alethkar enters a time of peace.

He burns an entire city to the ground with everyone still in it, including the best person in his life.

To be fair, Dalinar finds this out about himself around the same time we do; we find out that his guilt came so close to destroying him that he elected to make a deal with the Nightwatcher to take away his pain long enough for him to function, to grow and develop and move beyond his thoroughly reprehensible past.

It’s a redemption arc unlike any redemption arc I’ve ever read, and it’s a redemption arc with so much power because when Dalinar has his memories returned to him? It’s supposed to break him -- Odium absolutely intends for it to break him -- and it nearly does. He almost gives up, right then and there, during the Battle of Thaylen Field.

But he doesn’t. He takes responsibility for his past actions. He doesn’t expect redemption. He doesn’t take the easy way out, for all that Odium whispers to him. All he can do -- all any of them can do, really -- is try to be better.

Give me your pain, Odium says. Give up the guilt, the shame, the internal anguish. Relinquish responsibility for all of the horrible things he’s done.

No, Dalinar says. You cannot have my pain. Because it’s his, he owns it, and to give it up would be the most unforgivable act he could commit against the ghosts of every good and innocent person he’s killed.

For a series that is so preoccupied with the journey every living person must go through (this post isn’t about Kaladin but I gotta yell for a sec. KALADIN FUCKING STORMBLESSED. ONE MORE TRY. okay I’m done), it means so much when you read this:

“The most important step a man can take. It's not the first one, is it?It's the next one. Always the next step, Dalinar.”

So when I watch the Yi City Arc and see Xiao Xingchen confront a similar reveal about his actions? When Xiao Xingchen learns that the good he thought he was doing, that he thought he had done, was actually built on a mass of bodies and blood and brutality that he wrought with his own hand, his own sword? Xiao Xingchen fucking breaks, the way Dalinar broke. But Dalinar had the time and space and the support from Navani (real talk though, Navani Kholin is the true MVP of Stormlight Archive) to slowly pick up the pieces and put himself back together again (If I must fall, he says, I will rise each time a better man). Xiao Xingchen has none of that. The one person he had left in the world is dead at his hands. The only other person he thought he could trust was the mastermind of this entire affair. A-Qing, he can only hope, has run fast and run far, and it’s his fault anyway that he let her come so close to harm.

Xiao Xingchen is manipulated so exquisitely and brilliantly into a position of abject despair that a self-immolation, a self-shattering is the only path he can see towards -- god, not even atonement, just a way to put an end to the sheer anguish he feels. And because he can, because Shuanghua is right there and there’s no one to stop him, not even himself, he takes that way out.

This is why Xiao Xingchen is a tragedy and Dalinar Kholin is a triumph -- Xiao Xingchen ends his story at its lowest point, for very understandable reasons, but in doing so he ends his journey. He gives up the possibility of ever coming back from this, while Dalinar, in a feat of immense willpower pretty much unknowable to mortal men, refuses. Dalinar accepts the worst about himself, but refuses to let his journey end there. Dalinar still believes in himself, whereas Xiao Xingchen loses all hope.

Would I love an entire novel-length AU about a Xiao Xingchen who survives Yi City and has to negotiate the complex relationships between guilt, morality, and self-worth? Absolutely. Do I love him regardless? You bet your ass I do.

But there we have it -- why I love Dalinar Kholin and Xiao Xingchen, and why they live side-by-side on the same shelf in my brain.

#ask and ye shall receive #Stormlight Archive #Dalinar Kholin #Xiao Xingchen #cfsbf!#if y'all respond to this post with 'I've never read SA but I read this post' I'm gonna be sad #but also if this post gets you to read SA then I guess it's a net benefit #holy heck I love these two characters so much

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deathvsthemaiden · 3 years

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omg I love your book recommendations list you just wrote! the more and more I hear about the stormlight archives the more I want to read it, but I've just got the Mistborn book and I'm going to read them first, what do you think of them? I know some people have had an issue with the women in that trilogy but I did see Sanderson himself talking on reddit or something about it how he's trying to write better or something. he seems like he's generally getting better I think. so I'm looking forward to stormlight archives when I get to it.

also, have you read Wide Sargasso Sea? one of my favourite books that's based off Jane Eyre! the relationship between Rochester and his first wife.

I'm trying to get into fantasy a bit more, have you got any other specifically fantasy favourites? x

Ooh! 💖💓 Thank you, I’m glad you liked the answer!

I really enjoyed Mistborn tbh! I’ve only read the first trilogy, but I think for the most part women were handled well because 1) I’m pretty sure Sanderson purposefully set out to write a good female lead and imo it shows even if it misses the mark sometimes, like I’m pretty fond of Vin and was invested in her story the whole time, and 2) there’s definitely things to criticize about Mistborn’s portrayal of women, but I’ve seen much worse, and I actually think Sanderson’s Warbreaker is what deserves the most scrutiny in this aspect (it’s one of my faves of his because of the world building and because one of the only other cosmere characters that holds a candle to Kaladin is in it) but anyway enjoyable as it was it was also most blatantly misogynistic and I live in fear that one day a friend I’ve mentioned the cosmere to a ton of times will finally cave in and choose to start with Warbreaker of all things! 😭 (semi joking) (ideologically/morally speaking Warbreaker is just not Sanderson at his best even if I love a good chunk of the book)

Anyway you’re right! Sanderson is very open with his fans and admits to old biases and prejudices showing in his earlier books, and his improvement shows in his writing which I think is the most important thing! Mistborn era/trilogy 1 is a really nice starting place, I’m still very very fond of the characters and I think that’s why I haven’t moved on to Mistborn era/trilogy 2 yet 🤧 Era 1 is a solid adventure and while I didnt love the direction the plot went at times (and did not dig certain character deaths! 😑) it was an overall absorbing time and I might buy the trilogy sometime. It should be noted that Mistborn draws attention to the existence of sexual violence but it’s never described or at the forefront of the plot, Sanderson in general just doesn’t really go there.

Also no I haven’t managed to get my hands on a copy of Wide Sargasso Sea yet! 😭 I really wanna, but my library doesn’t have it in any digitized format 😔 I know you said it’s one of your favorites but if you wanna expand on that and tell me more of your (non-spoilery) thoughts on WSS I’m all ears! 👀👂🏽 no one I know irl has read it I don’t think 🤔 I do have my eyes on an ebook version of Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker, another Jane Eyre prequel I hope to read when school gets off my back. I have noooo idea if it’s gonna be good or not though, I’d never heard of it before when I stumbled upon it abzhsbs. The only other Jane Eyre inspired book I’ve tried to read was The Eyre Affair and while the premise was fascinating, I couldn’t stand the prose or characters so I dropped it qgshshshshh

As for fantasy faves! A majority of them are like fairytale/folklore retellings/inspired, I actually haven’t read as much high fantasy as I wish I had yet 😰 (feel free to drop some recs in my ask box if you have any 👀) anyway: Keturah and Lord Death and Sleepless, which I mentioned in the last ask, Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett (first book of the Founders Trilogy, an insanely fun ride, Sanderson himself left a good review on it and the world building in it is similarly lush as in Sanderson’s works! Definitely darker than almost anything Sanderson has ever written but I loved that), Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis (Cupid and Psyche retelling), The Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix (Sabriel, the first book, is still an all time fave), Tamora Pierce’s Beka Cooper trilogy and Circle of Magic series are old faves too, Damsel by Elana K. Arnold (🚨PROCEED WITH CAUTION🚨 it’s nauseatingly graphic and deals with repeated sexual assault, I think the end makes it worth it but others might understandably disagree. It’s a dark subversion/exploration of the whole ‘knight rescues maiden from tower and they get married’ trope), N. K. Jemisin’s Dreamblood Duology (definitely buying this eventually!!) and Egg & Spoon by Gregory Maguire was very solid and fun from what I remember.

I also rec T. Kingfisher’s short story collections Jackalope Wives and Other Stories and Toad Words and Other Stories (some of the works in both books are free online! So if you want a taste of her work def look up T Kingfisher short stories) and I’ve also read Bryony and Roses by her, which I remember enjoying but it’s been a while. Also Helen Oyeyemi’s work is rlly fun and gorgeously written, and in general has lots of fairytale references (out of the books I’ve read so far at least! Which are only Boy, Snow, Bird and Mr. Fox but I have the audiobook for Gingerbread checked out and the one for Peaces on hold)

#asks #book recs #ty anon! I hope at least some of these recs are of interest and that u enjoy Mistborn!

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