Cosmere femslash febuary is over, but I still have some things from it to post. Marasi being impressed by MeLaan's storage power and Khriss and Jasnah giving themselves an earned rest from a ll that heavy researching. 💕

Slightly moving away from stormlight, but staying in the same universe...

Telsin: Scadrial is so technologically behind compared to other planets!

Meanwhile on Roshar:

Listening to the Dragonsteel spoiler rafo streams and I just wanna say, on behalf of the cosmere, a deep thank you to Wayne and MeLaan for not having children because it’s apparently possible for humans and kandra to interbreed.

Can you imagine? Those kids would be a fucking NIGHTMARE

mistborn protag meeting

Wax narrates his own actions in dnd mixing in moments where he gets to drop planned one liners that are absolutely both fun and over the top.

Kaladin just does something like

"I mutter 'Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do' and then jump into the arena."

And the DM will be stunned while the whole table screams before the DM adds more flourishes because christ that's not what they had planned but it's so much better

Also Renarin and Steris both already figured out the plot of the campaign ages ago and have prepped spells or resources to trivialize half the encounters. But in a way that only frustrates the DM

The number of things that are just

Wax Dalinar

🤝

is so many.

killed their first wife

bullies god into doing better

absolute catnip to Shards

will fight an entire army even if they have to do it alone

series kicks off with the death of their sibling (and oh, what were you up to, sibling)

Round 1 poll 5

4 - Frozen

A quick one for today. The prompt made me thinking Marasi‘s bendalloy cadmium bubble. 

Wax Ladrian really is the character of all time. He has a ridiculous name. He wears a cowboy getup to high society social functions and wore fancy suits out in the Roughs. He hates cops. He is a cop. His best friend is a kleptomaniac. He killed his first wife. Twice. His second wife is autistic.

The Alloy of Law chapter 16 be like:

wayne, dressed as an old lady: oh the world keeps changing, it's so bizarre, could give me a detailed analysis of how this high security transportation vehicle works?

a poor tekiel guard: well you see, once these doors lock no one can enter in or out for twelve whole hours.

wayne, noting in his traded notebook: and would you say this mechanism is completely foolproof? could dynamite penetrate it? what about allomancers?

tekiel guard: what would they do? Push so hard they'd be blown off the train? if they did get into it, there will be guards waiting inside

wayne, still in an old lady's costume: and what are they armed with?

tekiel guard: a motherfuckin- hold on...

wayne:...

tekiel guard: and why would you-

wayne: OH I'M MISSING MY TEA *RUNNING*

wayne, changing his costume to a lord: oh, by the Survivor! how did this happen?

tekiel guard: he was disguised as an elderly-

wayne: and how many soldiers did yoy say again you had, Captain?

tekiel guard: three dozen-

wayne: THAT'S NOT ENOUGH, LET ME SEND YOU MY PERSONAL GUARD

wayne, now in the costume of a guard: oh, my lord is quite paranoid, i'll let you do what you need to do.

wayne: have you met my buddy, Bren?

wax: ✌🏻 sup

Thoughts on Mistborn: Shadows of Self

Shadows of Self is incredibly great, heartbreaking, and thought-provoking!

I'm hurt and confused. And I'm not sure how to feel, and I love it for that. Shadows of Self is completely different than its preceding book. It is different from even the Mistborn trilogy. There are themes of the stagnation of political systems, religious tension, the ethics and morals of what line God should, could, might have on interfering with the lives of his creations. After finishing off the book, I genuinely had no idea what to think about Harmony, Trell's puppeteering, Bleeder's campaign, or the state of Elendel.

Something that annoyed me about Era 2's books off the bat was the noble system. There's no state sponsored murder or rape, and the nobles are more like businessmen. But it still felt like nothing changed over the last 340 years. I kept thinking... wow, this is what Kelsier died for?! This is what Vin and Elend fought to protect?! I started off hating everyone - Harmony, the Senate, constables, Wax, even Spook - for not erasing the noble system. But while reading the book I kept thinking about Sazed's limitations due to wielding the Shard of Harmony, his stance on free will, his subtle maneuvering of Wax and Marasi... and kept thinking about real life. I came to the realization that being in the role of God comes with a lot of nuance on guiding mortals. I connected the stagnation of Elendel back to the history of the US... how even though centuries has passed, many abhorrent systems are masked by seemingly more human systems. Governments are still being controlled by nobles and aristocrats, just in a different flavor. Policing has so many issues it could take 1000 years to solve.

Even after finishing the book, I still think the noble system should've been completely erased. But now I'm thinking if that would've fundamentally changed things. The US doesn't have monarchs, nobles, slave plantations, or aristocrats. But corporations, billionaires, politicians, and the upper class get away with a lot, they find ways to obtain power and avoid accountability. Would Harmony be right if he gave the divine mandate of "I DECREE NO NOBLES FOR ALL OF TIME!" At that point is free will a choice?

I started off blaming Harmony for not making a democratic world with no nobles. Ended off having… weird feelings about him. Like... MeLann brings up a great point about the kandra impersonating witnesses to testify against people. If Harmony allowed that, that could be a dangerous precedent.

But then there's Bleeder. Bleeder is easily my favorite antagonist in the series. She's incredibly competent, her body horror is gruesome horrific, and her climax is depressingly tragic. May she rest in the Beyond. Poor Wax. This is the thing that has me feeling weird about Harmony. This hurts cuz of Sazed. Fuck Sazed. Fuck Sazed. I knew Harmony would’ve become a Chessmaster, but not like this. Sazed isn’t supposed to manipulate people. Sazed isn’t supposed to cause trauma to people 😭😢💔💔

But Sazed is, unfortunately, the Hero of Ages. Harmony seems to be foreseeing a great disaster caused by Trell. I’m pretty sure he’s trying to thread towards a future possibility that will save Scadrial from this disaster. He must think about the future of the entire world. It hurts that he moved Wax this way, but would there really have been any difference if he left Wax completely alone? The Set - puppets of a Shard of Adonalsium - would've subtly caused turmoil on Elendel. What if he told Wax he was hunting Lessie? TenSoon said it himself. Harmony saw the future, saw that Wax wouldn't go through with it. Bleeder - another puppet of a Shard - would've succeeded in her goals. Sure he could've maneuvered someone else, but it opens a new can of worms!

I love the hints of Trell being a far scarier antagonist than it appears. I love the advancements and possibilities of Hemalurgy Trell is responsible for. Shadows of Self does a far better job than The Hero of Ages presenting gray morality in the motives and plans of gods. It also does a far better job at presenting a smart and clever antagonistic deity. I think with the conflict between Ruin and Preservation, Sanderson wrote many things that made Ruin appear too much like "the bad guy." He can say Preservation has a dark side, but we never saw it. The one reprehensible thing Preservation could've been completely responsible for - the Deepness killing people - ended up being the result of his frayed mind. He could've been solely responsible for the Deepness covering the Sun and killing plants, but that ended up being caused by Ruin. Ruin spoke with too much malice and joy of killing all life and destroying everything. Apart from his attributes being fundamental aspects of life and the Universe, there was no possible way I could've seen his stance as having any sort of value. Sanderson also wrote too many things that made Ruin's planning so far behind Preservation's. Preservation felt like a Xanatosian genius even on his deathbed. Ruin was a petulant child. Ruin wasn't kind, or patient, or particularly clever, or have long-spanning schemes when Sanderson presented him in the spotlight. Don't even get me started on his futuresight lmao. And tbh I don’t get why Sanderson wrote a being of death and destruction as the opposite of stasis and stability. Is he trying to say in life and creation, everything either stays the same or everything dies?

I know that wasn’t his intent, but it came across that way. It’s haphazard in retrospect, and I don’t understand why that was the direction after the beauty of Kelsier’s rebellion. I still love the concept of Ruin and Preservation’s conflict, but I think it could’ve been much more developed. More nuanced. Ruin could’ve been far more of a Chessmaster or represented a different concept.

With Harmony and Trell... I'm not as certain who's the good or bad guy. And so far, Trell's schemes are genuinely complex, layered, and terrifying. Even the Set are scary.

Marasi grew a lot, as expected. Wayne didn't grow but he was still so much fun. Love the new dynamic of Wayne and MeLaan, who's also pretty great. ARADEL IS A MAN!!!

There wasn't much of Steris this book. But she vastly improved in such a short time! Feels like she hides a lot but is actually a warm person. Look at the ending 🥺

Well done, Sanderson. I give Shadows of Self ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.

Marsh: *spends all of HoA desperately wishing for death*

Marsh: *becomes the personification of death in Scadrian culture*

Sazed has a sense of humor