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esseastri · 6 years

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Megan Reads Oathbringer (part 8)

AAAAANND WE’RE BACK!

Hello, fronds, apologies for the brief hiatus, but I had to pause the reading/liveblogging because I was busy finishing my novel. YEP, I FINISHED WRITING MY BOOK, WHOOO! And then it was December, and there was Christmas, and traveling, and retail job at Christmas, and Star Wars, and what little time I had to myself I spent chilling because I was exhausted, but ANYWAY, I’M BACK, FRONDS, LET’S GET ON WITH THIS.

Part 8 encompasses pages 557-666 (previous parts)

whooooops where did I leave off, OKAY INTERLUDES

Why...why are we doing anything near Aimia? Listen: Axies the Collector is cool, but two-thousand-cremlings-in-a-trench-coat was waaayyy too far over the horror line for me. I do not want more of this.

So...there’s a third storm? But this one is stationary and around Aimia?

MORE REASON NOT TO GO THERE

Whoa, that sure is a side effect of Soulcasting... #yikes

Or is it not soulcasting? Is it something Radiant?

Oh fuck. Fine. This is fine. You know, the previous Stormlight books didn’t have this much body horror in them.

Ahh, shit, wasn’t there an Oathgate on Akinah? I don’t want a direct line to two-thousand-cremlings-in-a-trench-coat.

“the creatures that accompanied the spren” So...like......their Cognitive shadows? the versions of them still in the Cognitive Realm even as bits of them manifest visibly in the physical? Or...something else?

I’m sorry, did they just...die?

What the

What even is Aimia, really?

Mmmkay, actually, I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know the secret of Aimia, I am not interested in being EATEN by two-thousand-cremlings-in-a-trench-coat.

Genuis!Taravangian is an asshole. I’m not surprised, I’m just. Stating a fact.

!!!! Are his secretary and the Dustbringer a thing? Are they together? Get it, girls!

I still don’t trust the Dustbringer.

Aslo “the most likely to accept their cause” Why? Is the “cause” like...destroying the world? I don’t remember if we know the Diagram’s endgoals.

...There’s a danger line for the “too smart” end of the sliding scale? Smart.

Also his name is Vargo? Vargo Taravangian? hehehehehe

IT’S NOT ABOUT DESERVE.

I think I hate him.

Dumb question: if Taravangian wants to take over Alethkar--presumably so he can take over the world--then aren’t he and Dalinar working toward the same goal? They both want a unified Roshar. So why kill Dalinar instead of working with him? The logical solution is to work with him, since he’s more charismatic and has a higher chance of actually succeeding, and then kill him off after he’s succeeded in laying the groundwork, and take over from there?

Not that I’m encouraging this, I’m just saying: Taravangian needs to sort out his priorities.

“kill those children” seriously, fuck this asshole, what a douchecanoe.

Also Renarin the wild card HECK YES.

The farming question can be easily answered: Progression.

Not all the Radiants’ powers were battle powers.

“the part of the world that mattered” OH FUCK YOU. That’s not how it works. It’s not about deserve. It’s about having the ability to help, which gives you the responsibility to help. If you can, then you should. No exceptions. No “matters”. Everyone matters. Everything matters. Everyone deserves to be saved.

Except maybe Kylo Ren, but that’s a different story.

Buddy. Odium already made a deal. He wants out of it now. Also he’s not a spren or a god, so why should your pathetic rules hold him?

Oh. Duh. Somehow I didn’t connect Listeners and gemhearts? But of course they do. How else would they bind spren? They infuse their hearts.

Oooohhhhh snap, they done got possessed.

Aw, Venli...things not going your way anymore?

Idk, I should feel bad for her, but I don’t? She brought this on herself. And on her friends. And on her sister, who is still dead. This is her fault.

“The listener gods were not completely sane.” I mean, idk what you expected.

Though, neither are our gods, so I guess we can’t talk.

Seriously, what did Alethkar do to them?

Oh. Wait. Where was Jezrien from? King of the Heralds, right? Prooobably his idea to make the OAthpact? His fault they were bound? That’s probably what Alethkar did to them...

Oooh, the new epigraphs are from the library at Urithiru! Heck ye, Radiant archives!

Though Taln and the Stonewards need to take a chill pill on the self-sacrificing front, apparently.

(Eks would be a Stoneward, pass it on)

Wait, no, hold on--the whole of part three with no Moash pov? But I’m WORRIED about MY BOY.

I’m unnecessarily suspicious of literally every guard that’s not Bridge Four. But particularly of this Rial guy. What is he, Bridge Thirteen? I don’t trust him. At all. He’s too...glib? with Dalinar to be a proper bridgeman. Around other bridgemen, fine, but with Dalinar? I don’t trust it.

I’m with Navani. “The greasy man is...unfitting.”

ooohh, Dalinar...... he “reminds him of friends from the old days.” Tho, bud, how many of those died, betrayed you, or left to become ardents?

Dalinar should know by now to just...not trust people implicitly. Always question.

I really, genuinely can’t imagine how awkward Kaladin and Shallan’s excursion to Theylan City was. Didn’t they fly? Shallan was probably all SCIENCE!! about it and Kaladin was definitely grumpy “let me fly in peace” boy. Nerds.

Sorry, hold on--you’re counting on Kaladin “Impulsive” Stormblessed and Adolin “Disaster Bi” Kholin to make sure Elhokar doesn’t do anything stupid? That’s like asking two kittens to babysit the new puppy.

“I can’t afford to lose you.” AAaaahhh

omg, no, don’t give Kaladin land. What will he do with it? Turn it into the Land of Misfit Bridgecrews?

Five times...so what’s it been, 50 days? Not even? That’s so little time!!

“Or is someone else receiving [the prayers] instead?” ...Isn’t that just the most chilling thought.

There has to be an explanation beyond “The Heralds are nuts” for Shalash to be erasing herself from visual records.

I’m sorry, rockbuds blossom? and have fragrance? Stop and smell the rockbuds?

“I am a diplomat.” Yeah, and I’m a rockbud.

How is Taravangian such a good actor? Or is he really this emotional on days when he’s not a raging asshole of a genius?

Aw yis, non-hereditary monarchy! I love!

“Does it involve punching someone?” It’s Dalinar, so, what do you think?

“Stone-sinew, Herald of Soldiers.” But...Taln’s focus is bone? Ishar is sinew?

I suppose “Stone-bone, Herald of Soldiers” would be a little too ridiculous-sounding...

brb, changing my url to “stone-bone-herald-of-soldiers”

“It was as if Odium had a grudge against this one in particular.” SAD ABOUT TALN FOREVER: THE MEGAN STORY

I s2g Dalinar is the most Extra son of a bitch in all of Roshar.

HOw do I prove I’m not trying to take over your country? I know! I’ll let you stab me through the chest! This is the BEST IDEA.

oooooooo Tension, maybe?

TENSION!! THIS SHIT IS SO COOL OMG

Also his special power--resonance? right?--is listening and that’s delightful. Or...I’m guessing that’s what it is.

Heck ye, Renarin!

“Strength and passion, the Vorin way.” In other words...Honor and Odium....hmm

So it’s Kaladin, Elhokar, Shallan, Adolin, Skar, Drehey, and...who? Some other bridgemen? It’s gonna be a fun roadtrip, tbh.

Buddy, Shallan ignoring her problems IS a problem! Don’t support this impulse! Don’t encourage this!

omg of COURSE Adolin hates flying. Nerd.

“No wisecracks about missing boots?” No, because that wasn’t funny.

“First assess the area for danger, get the lay of the land. Then gawk.” I LOVE MY SON SO MUCH, WHAT A TRAVEL NERD, BUT ALSO #SAME BRO

...we knew that Elhokar had a kid, but every time I’m reminded of it, I get really weirded out. He’s not old enough to be a dad.

PLease meet up with Moash. Please. I’m dying. My crops are failing. My skin is dry. Help me.

the advantage of living through Bridge Four is that you can sleep well anywhere? Well, I mean. I GUESS That’s an advantage. Sort of.

OH of COURSE it’s an Unmade. We do have eight more of those to encounter and deal with.

Whose is this though? Kaladin’s? Or are Elhokar or Adolin finally going to manifest?

(This is assuming that my theory about there being one Unmade for each order of Radiants to defeat is sound.)

Elhokar is trying so hard to be good.

Also Shallan is mean to Kaladin again, news at nine. *rolls eyes*

So, it’s going to be Kaladin’s Unmade then.

Elhokar, you know that the more you tell yourself you’re going to fail, the more likely you will? Stop it. Have confidence.

“Adolin made you want to laugh with him.” Yeah, he doesn’t punch down.

Also, the Kadolin is REAL, and I’m living.

Kaladin really is too good for this world.

I’m sorry, the fancy lighteyes’ gated villas have guards to keep the refugees off their perfectly manicured lawns? Fuck that. Fuck them.

“I needed someone I’d trust with my life, or more. So I brought us to my tailor.” THIS CHILD IS A DISASTER AND I LOVE HIM

Oh snap! we’ve made it halfway through the book!

“Even his voice was adorable.” HONESTLY, people who don’t ship Shadolin: how? It’s so pure and good and supportive and wonderful!

How did Aesudan know the parshmen were voidbringers? And why did she order them killed only to desert the city?

I suppose fabrials do trap and use spren, right? So it makes sense that the yellowgold...voidspren? would be offended by that sort of...I guess, spren enslavement? Sort of? But why are they so concentrated here? Which Unmade is it and what does it do other than corrupt other spren? and influence people.

How To Corrupt Spren and Influence People, a new bestseller by Odium, found in stores near you!

“I am the only one here who has confronted one of the Unmade directly.” Yeah, you, the Kholin bros, and most of Bridge Four who protected you while you did your thing. But sure.

Kaladin, when will you stop seeing your brands as part of yourself and let yourself heal?

Aw, I’m proud of her, admitted Veil is--oh. “They are both equally fake.” Hon, no... please. Talk to someone about this.

Aharietiam, or as I like to call it, “that other stupidly long and impossible-to-pronunce “A”-word.”

Sorry, but the fact that Shallan takes pleasure in pissing Kaladin off-- “he glared at you in the most satisfying of ways” --is really....gross. Uncomfortable. I’m not here for it.

Like, yeah, teasing is fine, but like... if it strays over from teasing into Actively Pushing Someone’s Buttons Just to Make Them Angry, then it’s BAD, okay? It’s really bad. I can say from experience: it’s very bad.

Well, I mean, that explains why no one’s come back from the palace.

“As a connoisseur of things that have killed me...” honestly. what are we up to now? Poison bread. Shipwreck and drowning. Run through with a sword. Dear god, child, you need to be more careful.

Kaladin making bad puns and smiling is giving me life though. Petition for more.

So, the Skybreakers and the Windrunners did not get along? Justice vs. Honor, I suppose...not unexpected. Especially is one is corrupted.

Isn’t Ishar...Bondsmiths? Herald of Luck? Are you sure?

“He is now as mad as the rest. More, perhaps.” Yeah, I got that vibe from Edgedancer.

Shit. Of course he set himself up as a god-king.

(He and the Lord-Ruler should make t-shirts.)

Dangit, Ishar founded the Oathpact, so bang goes that theory about Jezrien and Alethkar and the listeners.

“The Stormfather hated to be misquoted.” Pppfffft.

HECK YE, Bridge Four got a sword!!

Also omg Navani invented alarm clocks. Bless her.

She packed him lunch! BLESS THESE ADORABLE NERDS. God, they are ridiculous.

Dalinar hitching a ride to Azir with Jasnah and her just going, “Byyyeeeeee” and leaving him alone is HILARIOUS to me.

I wonder if the color of the gemstones in the epigraphs correspond to the radiant orders. Like, if the Windruners recorded in sapphire, and the Lightweavers recorded in garnet, etc.

Okay, I went back and checked, and that seems legit. I’m going to guess that’s been #confirmed by people who finished this book earlier than me, but listen.

“covered by a magnificent bronze dome” Lift voice: “boobies” Me: snrk

SPIRITUAL ADHESION!? WTF THIS IS SO COOL

OMG, he brought them an essay, that’s magnificent. Especially because they all had to write essays to apply to be king. Or.. Prime? WHATEVER THAT’S HILARIOUS AND I LOVE AZIR SO MUCH

hello, I love Jasnah, this is news to no one, but girl wrote an essay in rhythmic meter and *melts*

...the Azish parshmen negotiating for pay is...very Azish of them. And the Alethi parshmen gathering for war is very Alethi. And the Theylan parshmen sailing off into the sunset is very Theylan of them.

HA, Dalinar just said the same thing in the next paragraph, go me.

LIFT ATE HIS LUNCH, I LOVE HER, HELLO BBY I’VE MISSED YOU

“The crazy spren who lives in the forest.” 1. I love Lift a lot. 2. uuhhh...we know the Heralds are crazy, and I assumed Odium was crazy, but Cultivation, too?? Is ANYONE here sane anymore?

oh wow they agreed.

didn’t...see that coming. Not with so much book left.

OOOHHH SNAP HE REMEMBERS. HERE WE GO HERE WE GO AAHHHH

Every time I’m reminded that Adolin is only, like, 24yo, I have to tell myself that I was about that old when WoR came out and he’s not actually a child.

Anyway, 12yo Adolin is a gift. “Neat!” this kiddo aahhh

“It was gratifying to see how much one could accomplish in both politics and trade by liberally murdering the other fellow’s soldiers.” PUNK!DALINAR NEEDS TO LOOK AT HIS LIFE AND HIS CHOICES AND RECONSIDER HIS WORD CHOICE AT THE VERY LEAST

hugs are un-Alethi. this is why they have so many issues. they are emotionally constipated from lack of hugs.

“The other son” fuck you, punk!Dalinar

also “she’d never be a great scribe” yeah, that’s ‘cause she’s left-handed, you Vorin jerks

haaaa, he has a point. That even if he and Gavilar know that he wouldn’t ever betray Gavilar for the throne, Gavilar’s advisors aren’t stupid and will find reasons for Dalinar to be...elsewhere.

“Storms, I don’t deserve her, do I?” NO YOU FREAKING DON’T

tbh, I’m not even sure present-day Dalinar deserves her. Like, he’s better now, but he’s still... a soldier. He’s still a strategist. And Evi deserves a soft, gentle person who loves her.

Evi deserves the world, tbh, and I’m Upset because she’s going to die and I’m going to be Sad.

#op #Megan reads OB #Oathbringer spoilers #Stormlight Archive #Oathbringer #Brandon Sanderson #I'm back y'all #hopefully I will finish this book by New Year's...we'll see if I manage it but that's the goal #thanks for your patience everyone!

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preservationandruin · 7 years

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Oathbringer Liveblog Part Three, Chapters 77-82

Well, now that I’m somewhat recovered, let’s go on. (I wasn’t kidding about the last part upsetting me; I know I’m hyperbolic very often, but I was actually shaking and crying and couldn’t keep reading).

Anyway. That’s behind us and lives only in our nightmares. On with the book.

Kaladin learns more about Highmarshal Azure, who I remain very gay for; Veil attends the world’s least exciting orgy; I create bullshit memes; Kal gains an army, and Shallan gets some much-needed therapy and a heart-to-heart.

Kal is running into a shelter from the Everstorm, making it in. They blow in slower than highstorms, but are less easy to predict. Also, looks like Syl hasn’t given up her old windspren-esque trick of sticking people’s shoes to the floor. He’s meeting up with Adolin and Shallan, and he’s picked up on the fact that Shallan sometimes seems to have a thing for him and other times is totally happy with Adolin.

At some point Shallan is going to have to deal with all this persona shit. Anyway, Kaladin hates being in stormshelters, of course, and we get that Elhokar is working on his plans through the storm. Adolin even notes that he’s doing much, much better than anyone hoped.

I’m...I’m really proud of Elhokar. He’s dedicated himself to something--to reclaiming his city and rescuing his wife and child--and he’s actually managing to pull it off well.

Anyway, Kaladin has learned that the wall guard is somehow producing food, they might have a Soulcaster, and that they seized emerald stores in the city. Also, Kal notes that Azure is “tough to read” and I’m still very gay for them.

(my roommate, summing up my feelings on Azure: A woman who can kick my ass? Yes please!)

Anyway, Kal thinks she might have an honorblade. Adolin is looking at Kaladin’s issued side sword, and we get this:

“Longer...like Shardblades?” Kaladin asked. “Well, yes, they break all kinds of rules,” Adolin waved the sword through a few motions, then sheathed it. “I like this highmarshal of yours.” “It’s not even her weapon,” Kaladin said, taking it back. “You boys done comparing your swords?” Shallan asked.

I....I just.... Listen. What happens here is Adolin takes and expertly uses Kaladin’s sword and then Shallan makes an unsubtle dick joke. Retroactively making the exchange...much more suggestive. I’m just saying that’s literally the conversation.

(sorry, I couldn’t resist)

Anyway, back to the rational analysis. Shallan got a copy of the book Mythica, which attributes personalities to the Unmade. That could be useful. And, although I am attempting to deal with this without screeching, Brandon throws this brick at my head:

Yes, it was uncomfortable to watch [Adolin and Shallan.] Kaladin liked them both...just not together.

I’m JUST SAYING, KALADIN STORMBLESSED IS BI.

Shallan, back with the book, notes that the book speaks of nine unmade, although some sources recount ten. Shallan thinks that two, in fact, might be in the city-- Sja-anat, the Taker of Secrets, who corrupts spren--as we’ve been seeing in the city--and Ashertmarn, the Heart of the Revel.

They’re discussing their possibilities in the city, and Kaladin sees a weird cremling.

It had a multitude of legs, and a bulbous body, with a strange tan pattern on its back.

Me: thinks about Dysian Aimians Me:

Anyway, Adolin and Shallan go on a cute romantic walk...right after an Everstorm, which fucks with the ambiance, but it’s what they’ve got. Adolin was promised a viewing of Shallan’s sketches.

Other Alethi couples kept their distance in public, but Adolin had been raised by a mother with a fondness for hugs.

I’m so glad Adolin kept that quality even after Evi died. I’m so glad he’s remained a soft boy.

Unfortunately, Shallan is considering making a new personality--someone who is “good enough” for Adolin, a “perfect bride.” The idea scares her, and I hope that she doesn’t do it. She’s experimenting with how far she can go with her powers.

Nobody could see her. Had anyone ever seen her? She stopped on the street corner, wearing shifting faces and clothing, enjoying the sensation of freedom, clothed yet naked skin shivering at the wind’s kiss. Around her, people ducked into buildings, frightened. Just another spren, Shallan/Veil/Radiant thought. That’s what I am. Emotion made carnal.

This seems bad. Shallan is losing herself more and more. Could it be the influence of one of the unmade? Sja-anat corrupts men as well as spren.

Vathah, also, seems to have become one of Shallan’s squires--he puts a lightweaving on himself on accident. Vathah is almost overwhelmed by it all. Anyway, Veil is going to the revel, to try to infiltrate. She’s starting to forget that Veil is a persona--she says that it would be easier to discard Shallan than to discard Veil.

She’s heading up the steps to the Oathgate platform.

Anyway, Kaladin is on top of the wall. Usually he likes the air after storms--of course--but this one is all wrong.

More about Azure. She always keeps her gloves on; she looks Alethi, and the knowledge that light orange is an Alethi eye color has opened up whole new worlds of OC creation for me. He goes to sit next to Azure and we cut back to Veil.

I don’t trust when Brandon does quick cuts like this. It means something will go horribly wrong. It means that shit will go down. We’re a ways from the end of the Part, too, which means that a lot of shit might be going down between now and then.

I trust nothing and nobody.

All the people up here on the platform are “reborn,” given new names that they barely remember--Veil’s is Kishi.

A variety of people passed by, occasionally scooping food off the tables with their bare hands. They laughed and shouted. Many had been ardents, marked by brown robes. Others were lighteyes, though their clothing had...decayed? it seemed a fitting word for these suits with missing jackets, havah dresses whose skirts were ragged from brushing the ground. Safehand sleeves ripped off at the shoulders and discarded somewhere.

This sounds like the world’s most dismal feast and orgy.

Veil is hearing the voices again, but Pattern seems to be humming to counteract them. She notices--there are no visible servants. She’s also not allowed to go “inward” towards where the Oathgate control would be.

“Everyone wants to go inward their first time,” he said. “You aren’t allowed. Enjoy this. Enjoy the feeling. It’s not our fault, right? We didn’t fail her. We were only doing what she asked. Don’t cause a storm, girl. Nobody wants that...”

This is...this is the ardent who was supposed to train Pai, isn’t it. Also, this refrain--it’s not your fault, Moash, you only did what people do. It’s not your fault, you were only doing what she asked. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.

Abdicating responsibility for peace of mind. Abdicating free will for comfort. Partying at the world’s worst revel while the city burns down around you. Nero fiddles while Rome burns and you can see so clearly where Sanderson got his inspiration, can’t you? You just have to look around at people. I’m not going to make this too real, but this apathy and excess--it exists.

I think Shallan’s idea about the Midnight mother is right. I think they were people once, these Unmade. It explains why they’re the things people do and want to do, but twisted even worse.

Anyway, the place that was once a prayer room is now used for “another sort of experience,” and honestly this book has had both Shallan and Dalinar impaled, I think we can say that people are fucking.

Shallan takes a new face--Kishi means mystery. Fitting. She ducks a man going for her safehand drunkenly, and slips into the outer ring and through it, heading inward. I hope Pattern is with her--she sent him off to distract her guard/guide, but it didn’t say he came back. I hope he did.

I don’t want her going into this alone.

Kaladin is sitting with Azure and have I mentioned that I don’t trust when Sanderson cuts between two characters in rapid succession through a chapter because I know what he’s doing here.

Kaladin asks Azure about her Shardblade, why she is so sure nobody will take it. She asks, in return, about his shash brand.

“How did you end up in the city?” Azure said. “Sadeas’s lands are far to the north. There are several armies of Voidbringers between here and there, by report.” “I flew. How about you, sir? You couldn’t have been in the city long before the siege began; nobody talks of you earlier than that time. They say you appeared right when the guard needed you.” “Perhaps I was always here, but merely blended in.”

Also, I love how Kaladin just blatantly tells the truth about how he got in here, but it sounds like he’s bullshitting. I suspect that Azure, too, is telling the truth in a way that sounds like bullshit.

Kaladin looked her in the eyes. “Why won’t you let anyone talk about the fact that you’re a woman, Azure? Noro, don’t faint. You’ll embarrass us all.”

Turns out, the officers came up with that all on their own--so Azure does refer to herself as a woman. Good to know. Also, this is what I suspected. Anyway, she asks if Kaladin was “chasing her” but before he can answer, drums sound. Attack on the wall.

Over to Shallan/Radiant/Veil/Kishi again. This inner ring is...unnerving.

A woman with long hair dragging on the ground looked toward her, grinning with clenched teeth and bleeding gums. She crawled, one hand after another, her havah shredded, faded. She was followed by a man wearing rings glowing with Stormlight, in contrast to his ripped clothing. He giggled incessantly. The food on the tables here rotted, and was infested with decayspren.

Yet again, Pattern has to break her from the thrall of the Revel. She keeps going inward, noting that the voices are combining into a rhythm.

Into a heartbeat.

She stepped between the buildings and entered a moonlit square, colored violet from Salas above. Instead of the control building, she found an overgrown mass. Something had covered the entire structure, like the Midnight Mother had enveloped the gemstone pillar beneath Urithiru. The dark mass pulsed and throbbed. Black veins as thick as a man’s leg ran from it and melded with the ground nearby. A heart. It beat an irregular rhythm, bum-ba-ba-bum instead of the common ba-bum of her own heartbeat. Give in. Join the revel. Shallan, listen to me. She shook herself. That last voice had been different. She’d heard it before, hadn’t she? She looked to the side, and found her shadow on the ground, pointed the wrong way, toward the moonlight instead of away from it. The shadow crept up the wall, with eyes that were white holes, glowing faintly.

That’s in response to literally everything up there. Shadows independantly moving and talking? Heart buildings with veins going into the ground? No! No thank you!

Veil forcibly re-asserts control as the wall drums sound and jumps off the Oathgate platform.

The epigraph notes that the Unmade “can perhaps be captured like ordinary spren. It would require a special prison. And Melishi.”

Who’s Melishi?

Anyway, Kal’s headed up to the wall again.

“Damnation these creatures!” Azure muttered. “I’m missing something. Like white on black...”

Oh my god. Like white on black. The same term Zahel used.

She chose Azure as a name. She has a weird sword. She said she blended in...oh my god. I know who she is.

HELLO, VIVENNA!

Anyway, both Azure and Kaladin yell “Who are you???” at each other and then mutually decide to leave that conversation for another time because oh shit, the Fused. He rallies multiple squads, not wanting to call the screamers with his lashing or reveal his Radiance.

And then one of these motherfuckers tries to lash him.

(my memes are old and my humor is bad, put up with me gang)

Being Kaladin, of course, he’s totally used to directions that are not “the earth” being “down” and reorients himself not to crash into anyone and to be fine. He also manages to time it so he can crash the fuck into the Voidbringer before it attacks Beard and the others.

“Leave. My. Men. Alone!” Kaladin clung to the clothing of the monster, spinning in the air dozens of feet above the dark city, sparkling with the light of spheres in windows or lanterns. The Voidbringer Lashed them higher, falsely assuming that the more height it had, the more advantage it would gain over Kaladin.

Oh, buddy.

He’s pulled out Syl as a knife, but is refraining from drawing in Stormlight, not wanting to give himself away. Kaladin Stormblessed no-powers fighting a Voidbringer in the sky. This is kickass.

And he cuts into its heart, with Syl’s advice, and kills it; the pair of them slam into the wall.

Anyway, he heads down to talk to Azure. He’s sort of taken control of his squad.

He found Azure surveying the Eighth Platoon’s losses near their guard tower. She had her cloak off and held oddly in one hand, wrapped around her forearm, with part of it draping down below. Her unsheathed Shardblade glittered, long and silvery.

I’m in love with her. And she uses another distinct color metaphor-- “I’d bet my red life on it.” It turns out that the Voidbringers used the storm to march their entire army close--they’ll attack before the next highstorm. Kaladin summons Syl as a blade for Azure.

“I’m here,” Kaladin said, resting the Sylblade on his shoulder, “on orders from King Elhokar and the Blackthorn. It’s my job to save Kholinar. And it’s time you started talking to me.” She smiled at him. “Come with me.”

Back over to Shallan, of course, to prolong whatever Azure is going to say. We get an interesting note from the epigraphs:

Ba-Ado-Mishram has somehow Connected with the parsh people, as Odium once did. She provides Voidlight and facilitates forms of power. Our strike team is going to imprison her.

So that’s...interesting.

Veil goes back to visit Grund, the child she’s been feeding--she notes that he’s lying, and neither she nor Pattern can piece together why. She turns herself to look like a market guard and doubles back--and hears two men talking, and one of them hitting Grund.

It turns out that Veil giving food to Grund drew attention. Thugs killed his friends, then made him wait for her so they could take the food. It turns out--this is what’s been happening to everyone she tries to help.

It startles her so much that she falls from Veil into Shallan. She was being played the entire time, causing people pain when she wanted to help. Grund died.

Back over to Kaladin.

Apparently, they lined the walls of the room they use for Soulcasting with “metal”--going out on a hunch here, saying it’s aluminum--from Hoid’s recommendation. Ithi, the soulcaster, and her sister trade off the soulcaster, working constantly. She then demands to know how Kaladin alone is supposed to save Kholinar.

“There’s a device in Kholinar,” he said, “of ancient design. It can instantly transport large groups of people across great distances.” He turned toward Azure and the others. “The Kholin armies wait to join us here. All we need to do is activate the device--something that only a select few people can do.” The soldiers looked stunned--all but Azure, who perked up. “Really? You’re serious?” Kaladin nodded. “Great! Let’s get this thing working! Where is it?” Kaladin took a deep breath. “Well, that happens to be the problem...”

Don’t it always seem to go. Anyway, back to Shallan.

She huddled someplace. She’d forgotten where. For a while she’d been...everybody. A hundred faces, cycling one after another. She searched them for comfort. Surely she could find someone who didn’t hurt. All the nearby refugees fled, naming her a spren. They left her with those hundred faces, in silence, until her Stormlight died off. That left only Shallan. Unfortunately. Darkness. A candle snuffed out. A scream cut off. With nothing to see, her mind provided images. Her father, his face turning purple as she strangled him, singing a lullaby. Her mother, dead with burned eyes. Tyn, run through by Pattern. [...] The lie that was Veil became suddenly manifest. She hadn’t lived on the streets and she didn’t know how to help people. Pretending to have experience didn’t mean she actually did.

It’s all come crashing down at once, hasn’t it. Wit comes to find her with a sphere, sitting in silence. He says that the murderer of the child was seen to; he helped make sure of it.

“You tried to help the people of the market. You mostly failed. This is life. The longer you live, the more you fail. Failure is the mark of a life well lived. In turn, the only way to live without failure is to be of no use to anyone. Trust me, I’ve practiced.” She sniffled, looking away. “I have to become Veil to escape the memories, but I don’t have the experience that she pretends to have. I haven’t lived her life.” “No,” Wit said softly. “You’ve lived a harsher one, haven’t you?” “Yet still, somehow, a naive one.”

I’m--I’m really glad that Hoid seems to have fallen haphazardly into a strange mentor role for Shallan. That he cares about her and will find her when she’s curled up in a building in the middle of a panic attack and help talk her through it. It’s a human side to him that we don’t see often--but he’s had it around her since she was a child and he tried to get her to start Lightweaving again.

I think it might be, in part, because as he’s said--trying to help people is hard. But she’s someone that he can help.

Shallan knows she needs to go back to the shop; she knows she’ll just repress this with everything else she ignores. And Wit tells her a story.

“Have you heard the story of the Girl Who Looked Up?” Shallan didn’t reply. “It’s a story from long ago,” Wit said. He cupped his hands around the sphere on the floor. “Things were different in that time. A wall kept out the storms, but everyone ignored it. All but one girl, who looked up one day, and contemplated it.” “Why is there a wall?” Shallan whispered. “Oh, so you do know it? Good.” He leaned down, blowing at the crem dust on the floor. It swirled up, making a figure of a girl. it have the brief impression of her standing before a wall, but then disintegrated back into dust. He tried again, and it swirled a little higher this time, but still fell back to dust. “A little help?” he asked. He pushed a bag of spheres across the ground toward Shallan. [...] “Hmmm,” Wit said. “Not bad. But it’s not dark enough.” “What?” “I thought you knew the story,” Wit said, tapping the air. The color and light bled from her illusion, leaving them standing in the darkness of night, lit only by a frail set of stars. The wall was an enormous blot before them. “In these days, there was no light.” “No light...” “Of course, even without light, people had to live, didn’t they? That’s what people do. I hasten to guess it’s the first thing they learn how to do. So they lived in the darkness, farmed in the darkness, ate in the darkness.”

He goes on with the story--the girl being told she shouldn’t go beyond the wall or she’ll die. He asks Shallan if the girl is brave or stupid--says she’s both. Shallan says it’s not stupid to ask questions and try to learn things; Shallan asks what he’s trying to teach her, and he says he’s an artist, not a teacher.

“Weren’t we in the middle of a story about a girl climbing a wall?” Shallan asked. “Yes, but that part takes forever,” he said. “I’m finding things to occupy us.” “We could just skip the boring part.” “Skip?” Wit said, aghast. “Skip part of a story?” Shallan snapped her fingers, and the illusion shifted so that they stood atop the wall in the darkness. The girl in the scarves finally--after toiling many days--pulled herself up beside them. “You wound me,” Wit said. “What happens next?” “The girl finds steps,” Shallan said. “And the girl realizes that the wall wasn’t to keep something in, but to keep her and her people out.” “Because?” “Because we’re monsters.” Wit stepped over to Shallan, then quietly folded his arms around her. She trembled, then twisted, burying her face in his shirt. “You’re not a monster, Shallan,” Wit whispered. “Oh, child. The world is monstrous, at times, and there are those who would have you believe that you are terrible by association.” “I am.” “No. For you see, it flows the other direction. You are not worse for your association with the world, but it is better for its association with you.”

I’m taking a break here because--holy shit, gang, this is so important. The world can be awful and brutal and hard, and sometimes being in the world is awful and brutal and hard, but you make it better.

By living, by talking, by making art, by surviving one day at a time, you make the world a better place--it doesn’t make you worse. And that’s true no matter what you’ve lived through or had to do.

“What do I do, Wit?” She whispered. “I know...I know I shouldn’t be in so much pain. I had to...” She took a deep breath. “I had to kill them. I had to. But now I’ve said the words, and I can’t ignore it anymore. So I should...should just die too, for having done it...” Wit waved to the side, toward where the girl in the scarves still overlooked a new world. What was that long back she had set down beside her? “So you remember,” Wit said gently, “the rest of the story?” “It’s not important. We found the moral already. The wall kept people out.” “Why?” “Because...” What had she told Pattern before, when she’d been showing him this story? “Because,” Wit said, pointing, “beyond the wall was God’s Light.” It burst alight in a sudden explosion: a brilliant and powerful brightness taht lit the landscape beyond the wall. Shallan gasped as it shone over them.

So the girl took the light, and brought it back to her people, and it brought the storms--but each storm in turn renewed the light. And people, even though it was harder now, didn’t want to go back--because now, they could see.

Wit makes illusions of Shallan, saying that a lot has happened to that poor girl--Shallan says that other people have suffered more and get along “fine,” which is. God, that’s so relateable. I have to be okay because other people have it worse and they’re fine.

But they’re not, and that’s not what it’s about.

“Poor fool,” Shallan whispered. “Everything she tries only makes the world worse. She was broken by her father, then broke herself in turn. She’s worthless, Wit.” She gritted her teeth, found herself sneering. “It’s not really her fault, but she’s worthless.”

I’m glad even Shallan, even here at her most self-loathing, recognizes that her father was a horrible person. Yeah, he had to go through some shit too, but that doesn’t justify the immense amount of abuse he visited on others.

Anyway, Wit asks about the other illusory Shallan--Shallan says it’s the same, gives it the same memories--and it forgives itself. And Shallan recoils from that feeling of forgiveness as though she was burned.

“It’s terrible,” Wit said, stepping up beside her, “to have been hurt. It’s unfair, and awful, and horrid. But Shallan...it’s okay to live on.” She shook her head. “Your other minds take over,” he whispered, “because that look so much more appealing. You’ll never control them until you’re confident in returning to the one who birthed them. Until you accept being you.” “Then I’ll never control it.” She blinked tears. “No,” Wit said. He nodded toward the version of her still standing up. “You will, Shallan. If you do not trust yourself, can you trust me? For in you, I see a woman more wonderful than any of the lies. I promise you, that woman is worth protecting. You are worth protecting.”

THIS! IS! SO! IMPORTANT!

Accept the pain, but don’t accept that you deserved it. That’s what he leaves her with.

And she walks back, Veil’s outfit but Shallan’s body, and Adolin sees her--immediately hugs her while kind of rambling about how worried he was although he knew better than to be worried because he’s unkillable and have I mentioned that Adolin Kholin is a pure ray of sunshine and light--and then looks at her outfit.

“Nice,” Adolin said. “Shallan, that’s sharp. The red on white.” He stepped back, nodding. “Did Yoska make that for you? Let me see the hat on.”

And, of course, he loves it. Starts offering suggestions. Suggests her wearing a sword with it.

And then Kaladin shows up with, uhhhhhhh, the ENTIRE WALL GUARD.

Adolin sighed softly. “Of course. He’s probably their leader now or something. Storming bridgeboy.”

I love that Adolin is just like well, of course. Leave Kaladin alone for a few days and he has somehow gathered an army who listens to him. Typical. It’s even funnier because it’s honestly true.

The soldiers grew hushed as they saw Adolin, then the king, who was already dressed.

I...I’m dying a little over the fact that the narration decided it needed to specify that Elhokar had clothes on.

Like, we could have probably assumed that, but it’s Elhokar, so it was like. We’d better reassure them that yes, Elhokar does look like a presentable human being.

Well, anyway, they have an army now.

#oathbringer spoilers #stormlight archive liveblog #veil doing ghostthings #to be unmade you have to be made #one does not simply lash kaladin stormblessed

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tanoraqui · 6 years

Text

Pre-(Me Reading) Oathbringer Speculation

So…Oarhbringer theories…I’ve been playing spoilers chicken but I think I’ve remained mostly clean, so this is based almost entirely on just WoK and WoR, +Edgedancer. Also I may have looked at who gets POV chapters.

Character Stuff

Dalinar is presently leader of the new would-be Knights Radiant, but based on the attributes associated with their Orders/heralds, that job should be Kaladin’s, with Dalinar more…advising? Which works for both their character arcs:

Kaladin needs to get his head out of his ass, not just ease up on his hatred of lighteyes but also start seeing the larger picture BEFORE he fucks it up, not after (see: swerving with bridge, challenging Amaram.) also, Windrunnere are known for protecting and leadership - so I bet his next vow will be about that. Good opportunity for it as he heads to Kholin, where the darkeyes’ revolution of his dreams seems to be starting. After Elhokar in WoR, he won’t just throw in with the uprising, but you know he’ll want to.

I’ve also seen a spoiler that he may end up, at least briefly, with the Parshendi who fled rather than take Stormform? Pls be kind to them, Kaladin. They need it.

Dalinar, meanwhile, needs to figure out how to let go of power. Shallan (I think it was Shallan) was right: he’s here to gather the new Radiants, not lead them. Not forever, at least. Between the book flap and some stronger spoilers, I know the politics are going international now, as Dalinar tries to rally the whole world, and fucks it up a little - good. I wonder if the second vow of the Bondsmiths is something like, “I will unite people, even if I am not in the lead”? “Even at cost to myself"?

P.S. Gonna find out about Dalinar's wife this book! Gonna find out what deal he made with the Nightwatcher (who is definitely Cultivation-based)! Should learn more about the Old Magic with that, and Cultivation, who frankly I suspect is behind the very warm feeling from that last, golden dream Dalinar had at the end of WoR!

The book flap says Dalinar must “confront the past” and the back says he “seeks the past. That which was abandoned. That which he must not learn. For those secrets will crush him as they did the Knights who came before.” + Amaram’s obsession with Talenal and my mild spoilers-given knowledge that we’re getting a bit more about the Heralds this book, I bet Dalinar isn’t just confronting his own past re: his forgotten wife, but also

a) the fact that 9/10 Heralds, now held as idols, just walked away from their sworn duty

b) the realization of this on the part of the Knights Radiant was the reason for the Recreance. “If the best can’t/won’t do it, why should we?” sort of thing. And so our heroes will have to choose for themselves...

[hint: “Someone has to start...We have to be better than them.”]

Shallan…Her brothers will arrive, which will require her to confront how much she’s changed since she left home, but I think her story this tome will be relatively character development-light, plot/worldbuilding-solving-heavy.

Adolin: The first time I read these books, I said Adolin is poised for an interesting 3rd book, and I stand by that. He CAN'T tell his father what he did; it would put Dalinar and his rule-following honor in an impossible position. But the guilt will stew, and he'll have to deal with the consequences, and incidentally, this is probably the first time in Adolin's life that he's so overshadowed? Not just his cousin the king and his father the Blackthorn, but his father - and fiancée, and ex-bodyguard, and even his baby brother the Knights Radiant? I'd like to see him struggle with that.

I'd also like to see him remain NOT a Knight Radiant, not yet at least, but maybe pick up Talenel'a Honorblade and join in the fun that way. That's probably the best Order For him anyway, the resolute, dependable fighters.

(A part of me is terrified of an endgame where Adolin is Odium's Champion. Foreshadowed by his dueling prowess, and his...periodic tendency towards rashness and rage.)

Less Main Characters:

Szeth!! I'm gonna be honest: all I want out of this book is for some Szeth POV where he's talking with Nightblood and it has the vibe of a buddy cop comedy. All I want. Also, I guess he's going to go judge Shinovar [that sounds so pretentious; good grief, Nale], and I hope for his own sake that he's merciful about it. I think he will be. He doesn't want to kill, even if they were in denial and it resulted in years of torment for him and the world.

Renarin will hopefully get a little more attention, but I think still no POV? So not much attention. (I WANNA MEET REN’S SPREN SO BAD.) Hopefully he can get a little confidence.

I suspect his seizures are actually due to his Truthwatcher abiliies somehow - maybe because he’s been resisting them? Or they just always go hand in hand, but will get more manageable? Which pisses me off tbh, bc it’s been so great having Kaladin’s depression and Shallan’s inclination to cope with trauma by wildly disassociating be mostly unrelated to their powers, just part of who they are as people (more related in Shallan, but still it’s like...who she is? And that was a perfectly natural reaction to trauma, and treated as such.)

But the fact that Lopen’s arm started growing back, and Renarin stopped needing his glasses, says Stormlight heals major, old, and chronic illnesses/injuries/physical problems, which means imo that Sanderson is not treating physical disability with the same grace he gave mental. Maybe the seizures will continue with the visions they probably accompany, and it’s just something Truthwatchers have to deal with - that could be okay. Maybe it’s chronic, and if he loses access to Stormlight, they’ll return? Kaladin’s depression acts a bit like that, which makes sense because that IS due to real physical cause i.e. chemical imbalance, which maybe the Stormlight is fixing temporarily but these kids’ bodies are still set up just a bit wrong, and that’s not something that can be “fixed”...that’d be nice...

(This got away from character-related theories, sorry.)

While I’m on the subject of Representation in Fiction: GIVE SHALLAN SOME FEMALE FRIENDS. ALSO MORE RECURRING FEMALE POV CHARACTERS, CONSIDERING...JUST LOOK AT THAT LIST UP THERE. 1 WOMAN, 3 MEN. C’mooonnn

Speaking of which: My Wife If Only She'd Have Me, Jasnah Motherfucking Kholin had better come tell her actual mother that she's alive tbh, or at least send word, because Navani being forlorn to the point of illogic is, um, devastating. But also I will gladly die for the snark-filled adventures of Jasnah and Wit, so...

I know she has at least one POV chapter and I'm so excited. Only in one section, though, so alas we won't get much

Let Jasnah Have A Full Character Arc 2k18

Tentative guess that the wall she's soulcasting up on the cover is in Kholinar? Though also, who the hell knows, she and Wit could go anywhere. I ship it, y’all.

Taravangian has a recurring POV this book, which I assume is true recurring and not just, like, one chapter per section. Probably his arc will involve a growing uncertainty, as reality diverges further from the Diagram and unifying the world is harder than he thought, particularly with Dalinar as competition. (Note: Dalinar does need to learn to surrender power, but...not to this guy. He’s doing a LOT of wrong things for right reasons, and a) I disagree with that personally, and more importantly b) the morals of this series disagree with that.)

He believes his intelligence is the Nightmother’s boon and his compassion is the curse, and I bet either he’s got that backwards or they’re BOTH the curse and his desired “capacity” will manifest as, like, being at the right place in the right moment, five books from now.

Venli is worth mentioning, because she has a POV every or nearly every Interlude and I thus expect she’s the Traitor named by archetype on the back of the book. I don’t know how she took stormform before telling Eshonai about it, without anyone else noticing, but she clearly did. And the effect clearly sticks, even once a Listener changes back to another form...

Worldbuilding/Plot Theories:

Quick rundown of assorted factions/secret societies, as I understand:

Galivar: Started receiving same Honor Dream Voicemails as Dalinr, believed ‘em.

Goals: Return the Listeners’ gods (did he KNOW that meant Odium? I’m guessing not, bc he told Taravangian they needed to save the world.

Resources: 1 trapped Voidspren, acquired ?????

The Diagram: Tipped off to nigh Desolation by Galivar, asked Nightmother for “capacity” to stop it, got seesawing intelligence/empathy.

Goals: Unify world under his rule, with violence and trickery if necessary, to brace against Desolation

Resources: Diagram, Death Rattles, widespread, free-ish agents in unknown locations. Significant members: Taravangian (head), Moash (confused).

Sons of Honor: Worship Heralds?

Goals: Sought return of Voidbringers in order to prompt return of Radiants and more importantly Heralds, who will return and...restore honor and piety and all that jazz?

Resources: Mostly unknown, but some scholarship. Significant members: Restares (head, not yet met), Amaram, currently in custody of Talenal but not his Blade

Ghostbloods: What do these people even want?

Goals: Urithiru; knowledge there probably. Didn’t want Jasnah spreading knowledge of Voidbringers? Or just didn’t want her to beat them to the city?

Resources: Substantial. Significant members: Thaidakar (head, not yet met), Mraize, Masked Woman [Parshendi?], Shallan, Halaran (possibly not fully.) Davars owe them money.

Envisigiants: Nice, useless cult or bigger than Teft knew? Don’t SEEM related to any of the above in goals.

In conclusion: man, fuck if I know.

Um. I actually feel very lacking in plot or worldbuilding theories right now. I think most of them slipped into the character stuff anyway.

Either “Zahel” LOST his talking murdersword (whom I love), or he GAVE IT AWAY, and either way, honestly, what a dipshit and also where hte fuck is Vivenna and how did they get here?? Worldhopping obviously but there was no sign anyone in Warbreaker (aside from Hoid ofc) knew about that, so...???

I think the Aimians, with their mild shapeshifting, must be related to the Parshendi as well (I did look up the Horneaters.) And the...whatever sort of person Lift met in Edgedancer. I literally am not sure whether it’s spoilers or just background Cosmere lore that humans re not native to this planet, though they’ve been here for millennia, but I bet all the shapeshifting species are native.

Obvious but worth saying: the Nightmother is to Cultivation as the Stormfather is to Honor, probably? More or less?

Big point of confusion, actually: Honor is dead, but I don’t think Cultivation is? Yet she’s in the same vicinity as Odium, and has been for millennia. Hiding? Hiding really well? Maybe voluntarily mostly broke herself up into spren?

Note: the Nightmother’s boons and curses appear to be mostly cerebral, matters of perception or ability, though sometimes something like a bolt of cloth. This is presumably because she’s operating in mostly the Cognitive Realm. (Lift’s boon, of course, is explicitly a...blending of Realms.) (Or possibly Lift’s Curse? You know, the whole Boon/Curse dichotomy is almost certainly a failure of human perception.)

In WoK, it sounded like Elhokar was being followed by the same sort of pattern-headed Cryptics as Shallan, but then they didn’t like being around Kaladin and that worries me, especially with Amaram (sketchy) being followed by shadows at the end of WoR. I can see Cryptics simply not liking Windrunners tbh, but...there are darker spren around, now.

The reason this Desolation seems to be starting differently than previous ones is probably a combination of the particularly long wait between them +...is it cruel of me to hope it really IS partly Wit’s fault. In interfering. I’m sure he’ll help, but you know he’s going to break something eventually.

No, it’s probably that the Oathpact is weak, on account of just one true Herald left, and Odium is preparing to blow this popstand.

The first 5 books will end with the Desolation REALLY starting, and the gap will cover the new Knights Radiant orders settling into their new roles, people dying all over but it still could be worse, etc.

Series Endgame things: I think both that we’re going to need 10 new Heralds, one per Order, AND that Odium is going o be released back into the greater Cosmere, and I’m not sure how both those things will happen but I swear they will.

If I know absolutely anything about Brandon Sanderson’s writing habits, someday a man matching Spook’s description is going to appear in a Stormlight Archive book, inevitably speaking Eastern Empire street slang, and let me tell you, I am going to scream aloud. I think we’ll get Spook before Kelsier, though they might arrive together.

Worst comes to worst, I would watch an entire film of everyone else being dead but Odium furiously chasing Kelsier around the universe, playing whack-a-mole because this single asshole just will not stay dead.

#stormlight archive #cosmere #theories #gonna read it this weekend #gonna have fun #may not sleep much #but i have a four-day weekend so I have time to both read AND sleep :D #my fave horse girl books

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mistralrunner · 7 years

Text

Running Reads Oathbringer: Part II.II

Spoilers for pages 371-409 ahead!

“As white as a sun at night” Idioms referencing Shadesmar?

Evi is channeling Eliza right now

Look at where you are...would that be enough?

He will never be satisfied

I like Evi although I'm still suspicious that there's something more about her given Vasher's comments about Renarin's parent

"Like a blackness from the old stories. You live only by taking lives from others."

It's interesting what is being set up here, the darkness in humans being the likely greater enemy in a world where people want to believe the humans against evil narrative

At least Dalinar recognizes she deserves better and tries

How much of people overlooking Evi as not that smart was just because of her beliefs in the One

Ugh Gavilar bad husband Navani deserves better

Huh Evi brings up the Nightwatcher first...as a way to connect to the One? I guess that is a form of transforming oneself.

Ahhh Dalinar you did spare the kid aaaa

Also boo Gavilar boo for wanting a kid dead

And hmm Aona and Skai violated a pact? What pact?

Yes Lunamor pov with his full name to start

I'm glad we didn't leave the Shattered Plains entirely. Like Rock I've grown oddly fond of them.

Are there women training

Yes five scout ladies yes

I'm glad there's more than one too that really does help

Teft what are you doing you're supposed to be the reliable one

I like Rock’s respect to all spren

Ooh we finally see what he sees-a little into Shadesmar?

Ah Kaladin helping Hobber feels

I love the outside perceptions of Kaladin from Bridge Four

I love Kaladin and I love Bridge Four

It's really sad that even with magic powers Kaladin still might not be able to protect Bridge Four

Oh that makes sense as a way Rock moved from fourth to third brother why didn't I think of that

Aww Kaladin being there if Rock wants to talk about lost brothers

Heh Elhokar still wants a life changing road trip with Kaladin

Yes the Bridge Four Bridge was recovered

Where is Rlain? Is he training here

Aww he'd always been a cook

Not surprised the newcomers haven't managed to use Stormlight. They need more team bonding and Connection to have a chance.

Aww Renarin

Even Rock can't see Renarin's spren?

Renarin is Bridge Four. Bridge Four is greater than even the Windrunners.

Yes thank you for letting Renarin talk about his feelings

Yay Rlain's here but aww he's left out

I do feel strange about the Parshmen storyline essentially being dropped for the moment due to pov switch cause it is important

I love these interactions. I love Bridge Four

Ooo spren approach and watch

Please tell me they are good ones

Yay Syl!

Phew good ones I'm getting too nervous lately

Hehe they don't want to admit they were wrong to Syl

Spren drawing Stormlight huh

We kind of knew it could happen since Pattern was infused but this does make things more interesting

Especially after what Kaladin did with the Windspren

Okay the fact that Lopen can do the full Bridge Four salute makes me feel a little less weird about him regrowing his arm but still weird

Aww Lunamor's family

We need to introduce Bridge Four to snow forts

Something is wrong at the peaks? Concerning but not surprising given they're almost certainly Perpendicularities

Aww Rock was broken. They all were, it shouldn’t be surprising really, but still..

Oh Rock is technically first son now

Didn't think about that

The idea of Bridge runs being over makes me sad

They should fly with the bridge

Arrogant aren't you Shard? Given how Aona, Skai, Ati, Leras, and Tanavast ended up, I feel like Hoid made the right choice.

Are gemstones used in the visions used in real life?

Did we see this vision before? Why are these people fighting?

Pfft Dalinar frustrated the fragment of god into cursing

Dalinar: It's just a flesh wound! I've had worse!

So some humans did fight alongside the Voidbringers in the past

The Radiant’s a Stoneward?

Yep I was right.

So that's what Tension sort of does. That is pretty cool.

Yes Navani and Jasnah time thank you for mother daughter scholarship trip although a reunion scene between the two would have been nice

Regrowth devices? I wonder if that's what healed Szeth

Ladies on a scholarship trip I'm loving this

Navani acting like it's Middlefest cause ancient fabrials, Jasnah analyzing technology and timelines excellent

Aww Jasnah smiling

Yeah the recorded visions actually have done a lot of good. Like inspiring ladies to become lady knights. And scholarship too.

Ah Jasnah giving Dalinar advice on heresy XP

Thank you for Jasnah being a well written atheist who respects others’ right to believe

"I don't need company to be confident."

I love Jasnah so much "/You/ decide how you are defined. Don't surrender that to them."

"No, none would think Jasnah emotionless if they'd witness that tearful reunion between mother and daughter." I’m glad for the confirmation that it was tearful and heartfelt, but if only we could have actually witnessed it Sanderson.

Rock that's burned, rock that's crushed, rock with holes, rock that's rippled, match the rock effect with the magic that caused it!

I do wonder where this battle took place

I do hope our final encounter isn't as sad as the Aharietiam although I also wouldn't expect it to be the polished and glorious heroics of songs at least not entirely

Oh hey the preface scene with the Honorblades. Or rather after it.

What are the Tranquiline Halls. And Damnation for that matter

You know you were in bad situation if even the Stormfather has somewhat accepted you breaking oaths. Poor Heralds.

Ooh yes please Stormfather please give exposition

Huh beings Invested enough that they could refuse to pass on so Cognitive Shadows or something else?

Parshmen have spren? Are spren? What?

Are all the spren of Odium born of Parshmen? Who is more in control in the Fused? Why can they command Surges as well?

Expositionnnn

Odium is sealed by Honor and Cultivation. Even still with Honor broken?

Oh that's what the Oathpact was. Sealing the spren of the dead into Damnation, wherever that was.

Oh that is messed up. An oath sealed by people who can break it, and Desolations begin when one person gives into the eternal torture and then they're hailed as Heralds and heroes when they're the ones who let the apocalypse come.

Taln took the torture of ten for far longer than they ever bore it before probably

Far far longer apparently yikes

I didn't realize the span between Desolations got that short. I always saw them as hundreds of years apart but a shorter and shorter span really explains why society fell apart that much.

What determines a Desolation's end though? All the Fused spren going back to Damnation? How do you keep track?

Poor Heralds

Huh I wonder how much being bonded plays into the Stormfather's increased understanding and forgiveness of the Heralds

I'm kind of curious about the layout of Damnation if the Heralds could hide and fight there

I have more feels about Taln than before. "The one who was not a king, scholar, or general" but who never gave in...and paid dearly for it. Four and a half millennia....

People are messy, broken heroes and traitors both

Heh took you long enough Dalinar to realize that guy was Taln and oh you lost track of him oh dear

That's bad

Really bad

Oathpact gone and Fused just regenerate in Everstorm

Oh that's bad

Not just the regenerating enemy

But the fact that it means that killing Fused will lead to un-Fused Parshmen getting possessed and losing themselves, thus restoring Fused

So some people might be prompted to decide to genocide the race they once enslaved to prevent Desolations...

Not good not good

What did happen to Taln’s Honorblade

Sorry Dalinar, you're not going to find Taln so easily

Unfortunately Stormfather by rule of narrative they're going to find out why the Radiants abandoned their oaths. I wonder if it has to do with what happens to a Radiant's soul after they die.

Let's hope there's enough character growth and healing that these broken people can withstand the truth when it eventually comes

I would be interested in locating the Heralds

I wonder if any Shardbearers we've seen are actually Heralds

It'd be hilarious if that assassin Jasnah considered using to kill Aesudan was one

Hmm so what was Cultivation doing to stop Odium cause this narrative has mostly centered on Honor related things

Still

I KNOW THINGS

I LOVE MYTHOLOGY INFODUMPS

#running liveblogs #oathbringer spoilers #running reads oathbringer

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preservationandruin · 7 years

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Oathbringer Liveblog, Part Four: Chapters 93-99

Onward! Also, re-stating again--please don’t answer or clarify things that I put in here! If I want to know, I’ll look it up later, but chances are I do know and just didn’t mention it explicitly or forgot as I was typing. And there’s always the danger of spoiling something. I don’t want to deal with any of that.

The Shadesmar Road Trip contines, we get the most heartwrenching flashback yet, Dalinar Does Not Deserve His Perfect Sons, we touch in again with an unexpected maybe-ally, Kal has a vision, Szeth plays a game, and turns out Azure, who I am in love with, gets seasick.

We’re back to the Shadesmar Road Trip, this time with Adolin, who still feels like he’s in a nightmare. Adolin is upset that he never mastered the “sleep anywhere” strategy that soldiers are supposed to have, and thinks that Dalinar would have been able to do it. He’s also still thinking about how he killed Sadeas:

Adolin thought again of the jolt he’d felt when ramming the dagger through Sadeas’s eye and into his brain. Satisfaction and shame. Strip away Adolin’s nobility, and what was left? A duelist when a world needed generals? A hothead who couldn’t even take an insult? A murderer?

A good man, Adolin Kholin. Someone who cares about soldiers and horses and swords. Someone who is keeping literally everyone in this group moving and who notices when people are upset, even if they’re hiding it. Someone who is trying his best.

He starts talking to the ghost-spren again, noting that she didn’t respond, but he usually talked to his sword without it responding, so...not that different, then. He falls into practicing a kata, one without needing a sword. Azure comes to join him, around halfway through; Kaladin joins as well. Zahel taught Adolin it--actually, Zahel definitely taught all three of them it. Azure asks where Adolin learned it, he says his swordmaster; she says the same.

They don’t know it’s the same swordmaster, which is hilarious.

Azure says she knows a way to get back. Her hair is back to black, and her scars seem to be fading. She says she used Cultivation’s Perpendicularity to get through them--it’s in the Horneaters’ Peaks. Supposedly, there’s another one, but it’s unpredictable and dangerous.

Makes sense, given that Honor is, well, dead. Adolin says that Azure isn’t a Knight Radiant, and asks if she’s a herald, and she laughs, although her answer isn’t very convincing to Adolin and Kaladin. She notes that her sword doesn’t have a spren because it’s a pale copy of a Shardblade. Azure notes sheepishly that you’re supposed to look out for cryptics, but Pattern seems to take that as a compliment.

And then there’s a loud screeching, and Azure’s like. Shit. Gotta move.

We get a drawn page, about Vorin wines. It’s annotated again; apparently the writer has had milk more intoxicating than Pink wine, Auburn wine is closest to grape wines, Sapphire is made of fermented lavis and tastes most like whiskey, winespren are supposed to be rare and look like bubbles, but the writer sees them all the time, and their only note on Horneater lager is “responsible for that embarrassing tattoo of mine.”

That’s incredible.

Another flashback. To Dalinar, seven years ago, rifling through drawers looking for wine. He thinks people have taken it, but my money is on him having drank all of it again. He notes that he and Gavilar went on a hunt, found “those strange parshmen” and that Dalinar had felt like his old self--and that he hated his old self.

He barely heard the rap on his door as he flung coats out of the wardrobe. When he looked over, he saw two youths standing there. His sons. Angerspren boiled around him. Her hair. Her judgmental eyes. How many lies about him had she stuffed into their heads? “What?” Dalinar roared. Adolin stood his ground. Almost seventeen now, fully a man. The other one, the invalid, cringed down. He looked younger than his...what....twelve years? Thirteen?

he doesn’t even fucking use Renarin’s name or know his age.

THE URGE TO PHYSICALLY MANIFEST ON ROSHAR AND FISTFIGHT THE BLACKTHORN INCREASES EXPONENTIALLY EVERY TIME HE MENTIONS RENARIN HOLY SHIT DALINAR DOES NOT DESERVE HIS PERFECT SONS

Fortunately, Adolin has his shit together enough to back-sass his drunk father. Dalinar yells both of them out of the room, and then collapses.

A hand fell on his shoulder. “Father?” “Adolin, so help me--” Still kneeling, Dalinar turned, then cut off. It wasn’t Adolin, but the other one. Renarin had returned, timid as always, his spectacled eyes wide and trembling. He held something out. A small bottle. “I...” Renarin swallowed. “I got you one, with the spheres the king gave me. Because you always go through what you buy so quickly.” Dalinar stared at that bottle of wine for an endless moment. “Gavilar hides the wine from me,’ he mumbled. “That’s why none is left. I...couldn’t possibly...have drunk it all....” Renarin stepped in and hugged him. Dalinar flinched, bracing as if for a punch. The boy clung to him, not letting go. “They talk about you,” Renarin said. “But they’re wrong. You just need to rest, after all the fighting you did. I know. And I miss her too.” Dalinar licked his lips. “What did she tell you?” he said, voice ragged. “What did your mother say about me?” “The only honest officer in the army,” Renarin said, “the honorable soldier. Noble, like the Heralds themselves. Our father. The greatest man in Alethkar.”

First of all, a twelve-year-old is using his allowance to buy alcohol for his neglectful father who, most of the time, only calls him “the invalid.”

That’s heartbreaking enough. And second, it shouldn’t be Renarin’s job to defend Dalinar! Dalinar is being a horrible father, to Renarin specifically, and dealing with that, rationalizing it--I think a lot of kids have done that, although not to the degree that Renarin has had to, and doing that--making excuses, even in your own head, for your parents and how their behavior hurts and breaks you--that’s exhausting, shattering, self-esteem-destroying work. I’ve done it, I know.

Third of all, Evi never told the boys anything bad about Dalinar, and Dalinar flinches away from Renarin’s hug like he’s scared of affectionate contact, which also hurts.

I’m not saying that Dalinar is a monster. In some ways, he is, but in this moment he’s more pathetic than anything else. But that doesn’t change the fact that my sympathy in this moment is with Renarin, a boy who literally used his allowance--given to him by his uncle because his own father is habitually too drunk to do it--to buy alcohol for his father.

Hell, Dalinar gets angerspren looking at his sons. What Renarin is doing here is very, very brave.

Oh, Almighty. Oh God. Oh God, please...I’ve started to hate my sons. Why hadn’t the boys learned how to hate him back? They should hate him. He deserved to be hated. Please. Anything. I don’t know how to get free of this. Help me. Help me... Dalinar wept and clung to that youth, that child, as if he were the only real thing left in a world of shadows.

At least he knows how utterly far this has gone, how desperate it really is. They haven’t learned to hate him because--despite their current self-esteem issues and doubts--they’re good men.

But God, thinking about the way Renarin is making excuses for Dalinar to everybody in this scene hurts me.

Epigraph, on Yelig-nar, the one that Aesudan has apparently bonded:

Yelig-nar had great powers, perhaps the powers of all Surges compounded in one. He could transform any Voidbringer into an extremely dangerous enemy. Curiously, three legends I found mention swallowing a gemstone to engage this process.

That explains why there was a crystal-like thing shining in Aesudan’s chest. She fuckin ate a crystal to get power from Yelig-nar.

Over to Kal on what I will keep calling the Shadesmar Road Trip. Apparently the shrieks are coming from angerspren, and the pools that they are in the physical plane are just their drool. Kaladin admits that it’s probably his frustration that is drawing them. He also thinks, to himself, that he’s clinging to anger because it’s better than “the darkness.”

Depression, anxiety, the thought that something bad is always around the corner. God, it’s a fucking mood. He’s trying so hard to avoid falling back into the numbness where he became someone he hated. Also, we get something interesting about Syl:

“Where did you live? When you were young, on this side?” “It was far to the west,” She said. “A grand city, ruled by honorspren! I didn’t like it, though. I wanted to travel, but Father kept me in the city, especially after...you know...” “I’m not actually sure that I do.” “I bonded a Knight Radiant. Haven’t I told you of him? I remember...” She closed her eyes as he walked, chin up, as if basking in a wind he could not feel. “I bonded him soon after I was born. He was an elderly man, kindly, but he did fight. In one battle. And he died...”

Syl used to be the spren for another Radiant. She says that she lost herself when she lost him, but soon after that was the Recreance, and the fact that she didn’t have a bond meant that she survived. The Stormfather, thousands of years later, found her and took her home.

Suddenly, how protective he is of her makes sense. He thought she died once, found her broken, tried to protect her. She left anyway, sneaking out of the city to go to the physical realm as a windspren.

And then they find what they’re looking for--a lighthouse.

Over to Navani! She says that every person brings their own chair as they meet for the first meeting of monarchs. Dalinar, apparently, just tried to bring a stool and she had to talk him out of it. He asked Navani to lead the meeting, and she’s worried about him.

She’s also trying to convince him that Adolin and Elhokar escaped safe. Well. Adolin did. Oh, god, she just finished mourning Jasnah. Navani doesn’t deserve the news that Elhokar is dead.

At least bridge four can always raise a mood:

Bridge Four piled into the room after them. Many had brought simple seats, but the Herdazian had stumbled onto the lift with a chair so grand--inlaid with embroidered blue cloth and silver--it was almost a throne.

FUCKING HELL LOPEN

Bridge Four had, characteristically, taken the news of their leader’s potential fall with laughter. Kaladin is tougher than a wind-tossed boulder, Brightness, Teft had told her. He survived Bridge Four, he survived the chasms, and he’ll survive this.

I’m pretty sure Bridge Four is 99% positive Kaladin just. Can’t die. I mean, he was strung up in a highstorm, and that was only the tip of the iceberg of things that should have killed Kaladin Stormblessed.

Also, we get that Bridge Four swaps the Honorblade between themselves to “be unpredictable.” I love them.

JASNAH ACTUALLY DID BRING A FUCKING STOOL OH MY GOD WHY ARE SHE AND DALINAR LIKE THIS

Ialai comes and doesn’t carry her own chair because fuck your Kholin rules. Who’s to bet that, like her husband before her, she is woefully incorrect about the genre of book she’s in? Petty Alethi politics don’t matter anymore.

At least Amaram is off in Thaylenah.

The Radiants--like the little Reshi who was currently outeating the Horneater bridgeman, almost as if it were a contest.

Nice to see that Lift is here and in fine form.

SEBARIAL AND PALOMA JUST DIDNT BRING CHAIRS AT ALL. Sebarial backsnarks Navani and she considers how utterly, utterly possible it would be to just fucking throw him off of Urithiru.

Never change, Sebarial.

We get that Navani’s mother probably had dementia of some sort--lucid on some days, not on others.

Oh fuck, Ialai is talking. She’s like, wow, where should we invade first???

THE TIME FOR INVASION IS OVER, IALAI. FUCK OFF.

And everyone just goes with it. Navani decides to start adjudicating tasks. The Azish viziers to give them codes of interaction and protocol to follow. The Thaylens to decide trade. The Alethi generals to help reclaim lands that are needed, and fortify existing settlements. Navani cuts off Ialai, who’s angling to talk about warmongering, to suggest concentrating on defenses; Dalinar agrees.

Navani is thinking about she needs the Blackthorn and I’m just thinking--no. No, you don’t. You need Dalinar Kholin; you need the man who you fell in love with, you need the Bondsmith.

You do not need the Blackthorn.

Another epigraph:

Of the Unmade, Sja-anat was most feared by the Radiants. They spoke intensively of her ability to corrupt spren, though only “lesser” spren--whatever that means.

Interesting. And yet, she tried to help them. Ask my son. What did she mean by that? Who is her son, who she was speaking about?

(Please, as with all of my questions, don’t actually answer these)

Kaladin is remembering again--some of the slaves who got caught as he was trying to lead them to freedom. Now, in Shadesmar, he’s scouting ahead to see what’s in the lighthouse. Also, apparently what look like streamers in the physical realm with anticipationspren are, actually, tongues. Great.

Well, Kal finds the lighthouse keeper--an old Shin man--and totally fails at staying stealthy. Pattern and Syl are chatting, bonding.

“So,” Syl said, sitting on a rock nearby and swinging her legs. “I’ve always wondered. Does the world look weird to you, or normal?” “Weird,” Pattern said. “Mmm. Same as for everyone.” “I guess neither of us technically have eyes,” Syl said, leaning back and looking up at the glassy canopy of their tree-mushroom shelter. “We’re each a bit of power made manifest. We honorspren mimic Honor himself. You Cryptics mimic...weird stuff?” “The fundamental underlying mathematics by which natural phenomena occur. Mmm. Truths that explain the fabric of existence.” “Yeah. Weird stuff.”

Adolin gives Shallan a backrub and she threatens to kill him if he stops. I’m...so glad that Adolin is canonically basically a cuddlebug. It’s so good.

Shallan asks Adolin’s opinion of Azure and he gives a fucking opinion of her fashion sense i’m going to scream I love Adolin Kholin. He points out, though, that clothing says a lot about people, which he’s right about. Also I love that somehow the colors aren’t right for her skin, given where she comes from. I guess when every color gets super-saturated, matching subtle shades to your skin can get a bit difficult....

Shit. They found a corrupted gloryspren coming that way.

The Shin man in the lighthouse thinks Kaladin’s come for a fortune, because this is the Rii oracle. Isn’t...isn’t Rii an Aon? Could that be related? I have no idea. What the fuck even is Shadesmar (I know what Shadesmar is don’t @ me)

Anyway Kaladin touched a sphere full of light and “felt himself get carried away by the storm” so that’s great, thanks for that Kal.

Back over to the gang running into a corrupted gloryspren. Oh, Sja-anat is talking through it!

The corrupted gloryspren landed on Shallan’s arm. Odium suspects that you survived, a voice said in her mind. That...that was the voice of the Unmade from the mirror. Sja-anat. He thinks something strange happened to the Oathgate because of our influence--we’ve never managed to Enlighten such powerful spren before. It’s believable that something odd might happen. I lied, and said I think you were sent far, far from the point of transfer. He has minions in this realm, and they will be told to hunt you. So take care. Fortunately, he doesn’t know you’re a Lightweaver--he thinks you’re an Elsecaller for some reason. I will do what I can, but I’m not sure he trusts me any longer.

It seems like Sja-anat is really trying to help them. I like her more and more. Anyway, it also seems like Shallan’s Elsecaller ploy actually worked. Although more worryingly it means someone in Urithiru might be feeding information to Odium.

I’m staring directly at Amaram, although I know that’s unlikely, but listen, I hate him.

Kaladin sees Dalinar kneeling on the storm, with nine shadows around him, and knows that Dalinar is in huge danger. Shit.

He sees a vaguely familiar city, with a wall and an ocean beyond, but it stops. Apparently, you can only see shit if you’re invested, and the “shin” man is, in fact, Selish; he says “merciful Domi.”

Canned food exists in Shadesmar. I wonder--is it imported from Scadrial, or have other cultures picked it up?

Adolin talks about Rathelas.

“Rathalas was where my mother was killed,” Adolin said. “Assassinated by rebels. Her death drove my father into a fury. We almost lost him to the despair.” He shook his head, and Shallan rested her hand on his arm. “It’s...not a pleasant event to think about. Sadeas burned the city to the ground in retribution. My father gets a strange, distant expression whenever someone mentions Rathalas. I think he blames himself for not stopping Sadeas, even though he was mad with grief at the time, wounded and incoherent from an attempt on his own life.”

Oh god I knew he didn’t know the truth but having it confirmed hurts even more. He thinks Sadeas gave the burn order.

Anyway, the place Kaladin drew was Thaylen City. He thinks they could use it to get back.

Fuck Amaram is in Thaylen City.

Shit.

Well, hopefully he’ll be gone by the time Kaladin and company get there, I say, knowing that’s almost certainly not going to happen and that Kaladin will interact with Amaram.

I’m also realizing how many characters we don’t like or trust know the truth about Rathalas. Ialai almost certainly does. Navani does not. Amaram was there, so he does. If the wrong person tells Adolin about that---shit. That could be really bad.

An interesting point from the Mythica:

Sja-anat was often regarded as an individual, when others--like Moelach or Ashertmarn--were seen as forces.

Explains why Sja-anat is the one making contact now. She can think for herself.

Anyway, Szeth is heading out with some other Skybreaker squires. They’re having a test of martial competence. They’re...essentially going to be playing paintball. I’m going to shit.

And Szeth is actually having fun, for once! I’m so glad. He deserves to have fun every once in a while. Although he immediately feels guilty for feeling happy.

Nightblood has apparently forgotten that Denth--well, VaraTreledees--is dead. Then again, Nightblood’s grasp of death is...nebulous.

Anyway, Szeth is just like. I’m the fucking assassin in white. I’m not losing this paintball game.

Unfortunately, he’s the clear near-winner, so they’re ganging up on him. Unfortunately, he over-exerted himself, and runs out of Stormlight and gets hit by like 60 pouches of color and then falls into the Purelake.

He still won, though--because the rules say whoever has the least marks on their uniform wins, and his was washed off in the Purelake.

NALE’S BACK!!!

He says that he’s going to tell them--all of them--the two “greatest secrets” he knows, before Szeth bonds his spren.

We get a sketch of a mandra, which seems to be a huge beautiful eel-like beast of burden in Shadesmar.

Another interesting tidbit, I think we have the spren who gives the Thrill:

Nergaoul was known for driving forces into a battle rage, lending them great ferocity. Curiously, he did this to both sides of a conflict, Voidbringer and human. This seems common of less self-aware spren.

Kaladin woke up last, which worries him--it’s a sign that he’s slipping back down, again. We get that the owners of the ship are called lightspren, but they’re commonly called Reachers, and look like humans with bronze skin.

Syl actually--looks human, here. her dress is red, her hair is black, and her skin is tan, like Kaladin’s. Kaladin is talking with Ico, the captain.

Syl is pouting because they won’t let her ride one of the mandas that pull the ship. She’s very put out about this.

“Horses are bad enough. I’m not about to get onto something that doesn’t even have legs.” “Where’s your sense of adventure?” “I dragged it out back and clubbed it senseless for getting me into the army.”

Turns out her skin and hair are a Lightweaving, because she doesn’t want rumors of a travelling honorspren spreading, so she’s hiding as human.

Syl is still trying to matchmake Kaladin and Shallan. We also get a mention of Tarah, who we heard about in the first book, I think--here we get that she left Kaladin.

Oh, Kal.

Also, we get that Azure is completely awful on ships.

Also, looks like the mandras might be related to the arrowhead spren that Shallan imitated as Swiftspren--she notes that she’s seen them around things that fly or are too big for their mass. Also they die too far from human population centers, and sometimes they “drop,” possibly into the Physical realm.

I want to ride a mandra now, I’m with Syl.

Shallan is also having trouble drawing, sometimes. That’s not good.

“I had a splinter once,” Shallan noted. “It eventually got out of hand.” “You...you did not just say that.”

You can just feel Kaladin going through the stages of grief in response to that pun.

Shallan says that Azure is interesting because she’s mysterious and Kaladin indignantly protests that he’s mysterious. Also Shallan’s comments on Azure are just a tad bi.

Bi Shallan being canon is still the best thing.

He notes that being around Shallan is nice, but not in the same way as either of the women he’s been in love with. it’s different. That bodes well for both my “Kaladin and Shallan have a mutually healthy and supportive friendship” and “please god no love triangle” desires. Unfortunately, he praises her ability to repress things, which to him sounds wonderful, but... isn’t. Whoops, Kal, you fucked that one up.

#oathbringer spoilers #stormlight archive liveblog #i am in love with highmarshal azure #adolin kholin is a ray of sunlight #dalinar kholin did not deserve his wonderful children #Dalinar voice: unite them

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preservationandruin · 7 years

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Words of Radiance Part 2

Viewpoints here are a weirder spread--Shallan, Kaladin, Adolin, and Sadeas. Not sure how long this will take me to get through or how many sub-parts the liveblog is gonna be, so bear with me!

Shallan takes control, Kaladin tries to work with what he has and meets a worldhopper, Renarin jumps off a roof, and people talk way too much about Amaram for either my or Kaladin’s liking.

Epigraphs here are snippets of the Listener songs, which is probably why we had to get the Eshonai chapters first--so we could tell what they were talking about. In any case, Shallan is travelling with Tvklav’s crew--who I’m pretty sure are coincidentally the slavers who sold Kaladin. Because sometimes I feel like Sanderson’s world operates on the Dickensian premise of “everyone knows each other by coincidence.” Shallan is curious about the Frostlands’ natural vegetation. She also tries having conversation, but it doesn’t really work, in party because (rightly, given the situation) people don’t trust her.

We also learn that Jasnah kept, in her personal trunk, a drawing that Shallan had done of her. Shallan ends up mourning both Jasnah and the fact that all of her sketchpads--something she dismisses, but essentially her life’s work--are gone as well.

More sketches--this time of various fighting stances. Nazh has written that he had to steal the scroll these were on and that the bottom half was eaten by an axehound. Nazh leads an interesting and fraught life.

Cut to Adolin talking to his blade, something I still think might be significant. At the very least, I hope that spren can hear him and takes some comfort from having a human talk to them and trust them? We also get the story that nobody took Adolin seriously and that the guy he won the Blade from wanted to duel Adolin to embarrass Dalinar. Didn’t quite work that way. The Plate Adolin got from his mom’s side. Also, Adolin refusing to name his Blade is also important. Also, this: “I appreciate what you’ve done for me. I know you’d do it for anyone who held you, but I still appreciate it. I...I want you to know: I believe in Father. I believe he’s right...”

Okay, I know I’ve gone on about Edgedancer Adolin before, but one of the things for the Edgedancers definitely seems to be paying attention to the people and things people take for granted. Like, say, the fact that your shardblade fights with you.

Anyway, immediately after that we get the fact that Adolin can’t fucking read, not even glyphs. Navani voice: please get married so that I stop worrying about you not being able to fucking read. Also, Adolin is worried because they haven’t heard anything from Jasnah’s ship--WITH GOOD REASON. Also, Adolin insists that breaking up with Danlan wasn’t his fault--apparently she’d been saying something to her friends--but given that it’s Adolin it’s kind of hard to tell.

Also, Renarin and Adolin run through Adolin’s list of good-luck charms for duels---talk to the sword, eat chicken before you duel, wear mother’s chain--and Navani is skeptical and the boys are Highly Indignant that Navani is skeptical. Also also, Adolin likes pissing off the guards because he doesn’t like Kaladin--thinks something is “off” about Kaladin. As always, he’s not wrong. But he is being petty.

And then Adolin just crushes the other dude because he’s Adolin Kholin. He beats him so badly that the judge tries to stop them, but Adolin points out he didn’t break any rules. On the other hand, this probably didn’t endear Adolin to people--meaning that they were more likely to let slide that fucking 4-on-1 that Sadeas attempts later. Renarin thinks it was awesome, and Adolin gives him the blade. Which, uh, I mean, from Adolin’s point of view it was the best thing to do, but reading this again a) Renarin is notably hesitant to take the blade (Glys talking to him?) and also grimaces when he takes it and holds it (it’s screaming). But, unlike Dalinar or Kaladin later, he keeps holding it.

Also, Adolin’s brutality here wasn’t planned, it was just something that happened and that he’s confused about later, feeling drained. He did get the Thrill. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but it might not be good.

Back to Shallan, where she’s using Pattern to spy on the slavers to try to figure out how to deal with them. She also notes that these people don’t treat her like a real person, but instead as a means to an end, much like Kabsal, and she loses a bit of her temper and also mildly terrifies Tvklav. She realizes that Tvklav and the others don’t know she’s a timid rural lighteyes, and she also realizes that she can make them see her in certain ways, not just by copying Jasnah.

Honestly, this entire trip to the Shattered Plains does a lot more for Shallan’s lightweaving than studying with Jasnah, I think. Nothing like being thrown into a fire to teach you to deal with it? Anyway, the deserters show up, and we cut over to Kaladin. The lighteyes sparring grounds is somewhat disappointing to the bridgemen, who expected something cooler.

Also, Kaladin is plotting to kill Amaram already, which is THE MOST RELATEABLE but also not good for his oaths i guess. Anyway, Kaladin and the gang with him are supposed to be protecting the Kholin bros while they’re training, they get some backsass from Ardents, Kaladin backsasses back, and it works out. Kaladin is also left standing with Moash, which...okay, knowing where Moash’s character arc goes, I’m just going to be side-eyeing him the whole book, I apologize. We get a note that the numbers are still appearing--honestly Dalinar tell Kaladin it’s probably someone in there already so he stops panicking over intruders--and Kaladin starts getting irritated about Dalinar and Amaram again and Syl makes him admit that he does know that Dalinar, at least, is honorable. Amaram just has him fooled.

Also, Kaladin is backsassing Adolin, and uses “Brightlord” for him--the title used for people he doesn’t respect as much. Adolin says that the only reason he hasn’t thrown Kaladin through a window is because he owes Kaladin his life. Renarin is just standing there, being awkward, holding his Blade--he had to hold that thing for five days. Yikes.

Anyway, Syl doesn’t like the brothers, but only because they carry Shards (I hope. They’re good boys Brent). And we run into Vasher--I mean, Zahel, but it’s Vasher. Also, Adolin waited to bring Renarin until he knew Zahel was there so he could pressure Zahel into taking Renarin under his wing, and Syl drops the fact that she’s a tiny piece of a god, although it’s unclear how seriously Kaladin takes that. Back to Shallan, who is covering anxiety about the deserters with scholarship. She also sketches Bluth here--first a more true to life version, and then an idealized one with him in a proper uniform with a good weapon. Pattern asks about why people shit and Shallan does not want to be having that conversation. Pattern also says that Shallan--and presumably this is a Lightweaver thing--lives lies to make herself strong, but must speak truths to progress.

Back to Kaladin, who’s talking with Lopen. Also, Kaladin uses the word “greenvines” to mean new recruits. And there’s another highstorm coming--meaning Kaladin is paranoid about the numbers again. Also they watch Adolin training, and we get this absolutely amazing exchange:

“I’ve seen him summon that weapon before.” “Yeah, gancho, on the battlefield, when we saved his sorry ass from Sadeas.” I LOVE LOPEN. Also, Renarin’s training is beginning--he hasn’t been trained to fight, so there aren’t any bad habits for him to unlearn. And also this is the part where Zahel just tells Renarin to jump off the roof a bunch of times and also uses idioms that make absolutely no sense translated literally in Rosharan. Example: “I’m old, son. Repeating myself makes me eat the wrong flower.” I’m sorry Zahel that literally just sounds like a shitpost.

And then Kaladin and Zahel have a conversation while, in the background, Renarin is throwing himself off a building again and again. Fun digression story, this part reminds me of a story from my mom’s family? She had 8 brothers and little to no parental supervision so some hijinks went down including the boys, at one point, deciding to play “who can jump off the highest object” which ended in the youngest jumping off the shed and breaking his leg. Don’t do these things unless you’re in Shardplate, kids. Kaladin discredits how well Renarin will do, but Zahel’s got a better idea of it.

And also Zahel starts berating Kaladin for some of his nonchalance--like assuming he knows how to fight Shardbearers just because he got lucky against two. It’s turning into Sparring Bantertime. And then Adolin makes the mistake of further antagonizing Kaladin, they get in a fight, and Zahel calls Adolin the fuck out for challenging someone without shardplate when Adolin is in Shardplate because what the actual fuck, you could kill people. Zahel also says that Kaladin reminds him of Adolin, to which Kaladin Is Very Offended, and Zahel starts laughing at him. Kaladin also notes that the stormlight drained from him, and Syl points out that he wasn’t protecting anyone.

Shallan flashback time--we get the fact that when Shallan thinks about her mother her brain shuts down. She also hasn’t spoken for five months, apparently--since her mother was killed. Helaran gives Shallan a drawing pad and charcoals and says that he needs her to come back because he’s going to be gone for a few years, and he’s worried about the others. And of course what Shallan automatically draws is the murder scene, which worries Helaran as well and he tells her to draw safe things instead of dwelling on the past. Shallan spoke for the first time in months to stop Helaran from killing their father. And Shallan sees her father in a furious rage, but he stops himself before he hurts her. I still wonder--did he just care about her more, or was he scared of her abilities and didn’t want to provoke them? Well, there’s not much way to know now.

Shallan, again. The listener song quoted here does mention artform as a thing that exists. Anyway, we’ve just run into Shallan taking control of her caravan and leading them down to help another group against the bandits, because we’ve hit another moment where Shallan’s back’s against the wall and she becomes certain--and flat-up offers the deserters redemption if they help her help the other people. The leader doesn’t listen, but the others--including Gaz, everyone runs into everyone else out on the Shattered Plains, huh--do. Another new Listener form is mentioned--meditationform, meant for teaching and consolation, used by the gods for lies and desolation.

Also, we meet Tyn here. Also, the leader of the deserters--Vathah--attempts to threaten Shallan, and Pattern spooks the living shit out of him by saying “you should let her go” while Shallan pretends to hear nothing. Also, Shallan frees Tvklav’s slaves, including using the line “I saved your life, you oily little man.” And Shallan also sees that the caravan survivors burned a prayer of thanks for the deserters who saved their lives, which is great.

Back to Kaladin. Also, the listener song mentions stormform here, including the phrases “beware its powers” and “beware its end.” And it also says it “brings the gods their night.” So we’re getting heavy hints that stormform is really bad news. Also, Kaladin sees a red light out in the highstorm and thinks it looks like eyes. Creepy. Adolin is looking at fashions, Renarin is stimming, Elhokar is fretting. Kaladin is trying to unobtrusively be nosy.

Also, Renarin geeks out about fabrials to Kaladin, and Kaladin wonders why Adolin is looking at fashion and Adolin gets defensive. No numbers appear--probably because Renarin is in a room with other people the whole time. Adolin mentions that the only Shardbearer in Sadeas’ camp other than Sadeas is Amaram, Dalinar jokingly comments that Adolin won’t be dueling him, certainly, while I am in the background yelling “KICK HIS ASS, ADOLIN! KICK HIS MISERABLE ASS!”

Anyway now they’re talking more about Amaram. Can we stop talking about Amaram. You’re not going to get him to secede from Sadeas’s side. He’s a piece of shit. Kaladin also notices that when people mention Amaram, he gets upset and tense, UNDERSTANDABLY.

And so Kaladin goes to tell Dalinar about Amaram, and Dalinar points out that Kaladin doesn’t have any proof. Syl is optimistic, saying that Dalinar listened--and she’s actually right in the end, Syl is always right, she’s the best--but Kaladin says that he didn’t. Syl is also very upset at the thought of Kaladin “finding his own justice,” as he puts it, and points out that this is not what he’s supposed to be like as a Windrunner.

Also, Shen confronts Kaladin--which is an early sign that Shen is not a normal Parshman--and says that he isn’t really treated as Bridge Four, and that he’s basically still a slave, and Kaladin can’t argue with that and hates it. And then one of the palace guards runs in, panicking, and I’m pretty sure this is the Szeth attack.

Listener song talking about “Nightform” which apparently predicts the future--there is the whole “Voidbringers see the future” thing. In any case, the “attack” was someone sabotaging the railing and balcony where Elhokar stands. Kaladin points out that whoever tried it was an idiot--or, more precisely, a coward, if they’re the same person who was behind the drained stormlight in the Plate. They want to make Elhokar’s death look like an accident, but they tipped their hand here--because the only tool that could have cut away at the balcony like that was a Shardblade. Kaladin also swears, here, that Dalinar can trust him--one half of the conflicting oaths that tear him apart in this book. Dalinar also assumes that bridgemen have no part in warcamp politics, which is...a bit naive. Kaladin does, as does Moash--lighteyes can engender deep antagonism in darkeyes without realizing.

I’ll cut this here and get the rest of Part Two in another post.

#stormlight archive liveblog #roshar #adolin kholin can't fucking read #edgedancer adolin musing #renarin kholin foreshadowing #i loathe meridas amaram #FUCK YEAH BRIDGE FOUR

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