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nightblink · 7 years

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Blink Reads Oathbringer - Chapters 55-57, Interludes 4-6

Chapter Fifty-Five – Alone Together

I'm calling it, it's Sazed. Balancing Preservation and Ruin ain't easy. SAAAAAAZE~

RLAIN. RLAIN RLAIN RLAIN OH FUCKYEAH WE'RE GETTING A RLAIN CHAPTER BLESS U BRANDOSANDO

It'd be really cool if that became a thing, if humans (Rosharan- variant 'humans' at the very least) could somehow learn to hear the Rhythms and get a better understanding of the Listeners/Singers/Parshendi. A step towards peace.

[winces] Yeaaaah, I noted back in Rock's chapter how watching the humans 'invade' and build in Narak must be really, really difficult for him.

The last. Oh, Rlain.

He still feels heavily ostracized. Even with him being Bridge Four, he's still set apart from them in ways they'll never be able to truly understand.

(okay, but an archer squire Windrunner. that could be really cool and useful.)

Please take Rock's advice. Bounce some stones off of their skulls when they deserve it.

Sando please let Rlain fly with the others.

Yeah. They were so afraid of becoming those things once again that they assassinated Gavilar and brought the wrath of warlike Alethkar down upon their heads.

Can we get more Renarin+Rlain scenes and friendship can we please-

Okay but with Rlain attuning to Rhythms and now with Rock's family around (we at least know that Rock can pick up on them ever so faintly) I'll bet one of them starts humming along with him, even if they don't realize what they're doing.

!!!! Skin patterns have/had an importance or maybe even function among the Parshendi? Can they change, with or without changing forms, or are they genetic?

Oh come on, guys, you're getting worked up over Renarin maybe learning to read? Kaladin, please talk some sense into them.

EXTRA MANLY. LOPEN I'M WH E E ZI NG

(though tbh that's actually a great way to put it)

Thank you Kaladin for putting things into words that they can all understand and mull over on their own. Hopefully they'll even start internalizing it.

Rock is the unofficial psychiatrist of Bridge Four, apparently. Ahhh, but they're all a big support group for eac other in the end (yes, Teft, this is a feelings-sharing party, now join the club). Alone together indeed.

[winces] Save for the one even more alone. You can't blame Rlain for his frustration.

At least Kaladin's willing to admit that he doesn't know, but it willing to try anyway.

Chapter Fifty-Six – Always With You

Ooo, this is the first time Hoid's chatted with Harmony? No interaction before this letter. Not that Hoid would have reason to do so, but you never know…

“How do you know so much about Adonalsium” HE WAS KINDA THERE, SAZE

oh shit oh shit oh shit Dalinar's going back to the Feverstone Keep vision, Jasnah and Navani with him. We're gonna find out something important, this chapter, this is a Recreance vision-!

He's getting a lot better at the vision-transfer, but I don't think it's technically part of his Surges? That's a complete unknown, though, since it was Honor himself that left the visions.

Timeline note for the Recreance – maybe 2,000 years ago.

(side note, but listening to the Journey OST during this part is jiving really well. it's shiver-inducing.)

False Desolation. What. Jasnah, plz continue your elaboration.

Mmm, that makes sense, especially with what we know of the Parshendi so far and their efforts to fight off the Voidspren. Of course Vorin teachings would deny there were any survivors. But how the Recreance, then….

Oh, hey! Gawx! You've gotten a lot snarkier over time in these visions, at least from that fist quip.

I wonder if Honor included the dying screams of the spren into this vision, and he's feeling it at the very edge of his senses.

Speaking of which, this must mean that Honor was Shattered at some point after the Recreance.

Gawx honestly does have it hard, and now he's pulled at in different directions by the people who want to see their homeland safe and the Blackthorn who wants to save Roshar. It's not an easy place he's in.

Shivers there, Dalinar. Good speech.

Technically, Gawx, Dalinar owns up to what he's done – or at least what he can remember? He doesn't deny the Blackthorn, but he is trying to be a different man than he once was.

….what's happening. The vision's not ending. And this man in white and gold….?

ODIUM

FUCK FUCK FUUUUUUCK

AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'VE “ALWAYS BEEN WITH [DALINAR]”

ARE YOU SPECIFICALLY THE REASON THE BLACKTHORN IS AS HE WAS. NOT ONE OF THE UNMADE, BUT YOU YOURSELF

FUCKING HELL

Chapter Fifty-Seven – Passion

Oh good it's another Dalinar chapter, because if it had changed POVs I would have rioted

Oooo, calling Hoid back to Scadrial, Sazed? To speak with the kandra?

YEP BACK THE FUCK AWAY DALINAR, HE IS BEYOND YOU RIGHT NOW

g o d the Stormfather is whimpering and if that doesn't tell you how much you need to fear…

Dalinar looks like he's gonna drop on the spot of a panic attack and tbh I already would be

Don't you dare call Dalinar 'son'.

And there's Odium himself confirming that this Stormfather-bonding is different than all the others before it; I was right.

What shackles you, Odium. What is it specifically.

SHIT, DALINAR, WATCH YOUR WORDS

'Intent' is capitalized and obviously means just that but does it also mean that it has something to do with the broader spectrum of power

Consequences aka probably ridding himself of Roshar a la Alderaan

Oooo, not only are you bound by the Shards themselves, but even the Splinters here somehow have power wrapped up with you.

Now see, here's where we come to Odium Blatantly Fucking Lying, because if the embodiment of Honor cared only for bonds and oaths themselves, then you wouldn't see any difference between Honorspren and Highspren. Not to mention the Passion thing (likely subtly sliding in a tie to the Thaylen Passions there as well). You, care? Love? HAH.

[squints @ Odium] While I can believe you had something to do with the Recreance, it's definitely not as you're explaining it.

Ohhhh, is that confirmation that the Nightwatcher is Cultivation – or at least an avatar of hers?

Oh shit, oh shit, a vision of sorts, touching the power of the Odium-shard itself-

...what's there. Something Not Of The Vision. Oh man is it Lift. Please let it be Lift. Let her flip off Odium himself.

It IS.

But. Odium couldn't sense her? Not entirely? Cultivation DID give her something special

“What was that thing, tight-butt?” Lift you are the pride of Roshar and the gem of all worlds

oh my god please make the first thing you do in Urithiru stealing Dalinar's lunch

That's… definitely a way to end Part Two with a bang.

Interlude Four – Kaza

Oooo, we're back out on the ocean!

!!!! Someone else with visions? I don't think this is another Bondsmith, but maybe another Truthwatcher…?

'hirelings out of Steen' Steen, Steen, where's that map… ah! South of Shinovar, east of Aimia, and probably the closest country to Aimia, save that island chain stretching out from Tukar

Ahhh, she's an older lady, too! Good, we need all the older ladies we can get.

Soulcaster? But does she have one or is he calling her that as a title?

So, they were braving the slower Everstorm winds, huh – or… not the Everstorm, but a strange, strong storm that has nothing to do with either? Either way, they're aiming for Aimia. Now there's a land that we need to know more of.

Ahhh, so she's a Soulcaster (but probably not an ardent because Not Vorin) and looking to reverse the whole turning-to-stone bit. ….understandable, but you think Aimia holds the answers? Maybe? Why? Is it because it's the last place you have to look, or do they have some sort of rumoured super-medicine there?

Well, there's a rumour of some kind, at least.

…..not stone, smoke.

Oh that is interesting. The transformation with Soulcaster use must be dependent on certain variables – what kind of transfigurations they most commonly do, perhaps – considering that all of those we saw at the Shattered Plains were turning to stone, not smoke, and most of their job would be to make buildings and food.

Ooof, a prisoner of her own family, kept for their use. Even without the whole 'dying' issue, it's no wonder she fled. (Assuming she wasn't just making up the story to scare off the sailor.)

Huh. I wonder if extended soulcasting starts to connect one to Shadesmar each time they use it, or if it's only when the person starts getting closer and closer to death-by-soulcasting.

“Each would have required several Soulcasters in concert.” Or maybe just one Elsecaller or Lightweaver with a fuckton of Stormlight.

Again with 'something larger' that's attached(?) to spren that normal people can't see.

That is a powerful call that she's almost losing herself to, and quite possibly a spren that's interested in her backing the Soulcasting. Hmmm.

So, the Soulcaster devices came out of Aimia and Akinah in particular. Huuuuh. Were the Soulcasters an attempt to mimic Radiant powers, if so, and were there any Aimian Radiants? Or were they an attempt at balancing power?

Wait, what. Everyone's starting to go unconscious? And Kaza feels like she's being pulled to Shadesmar? Is there an overlap here of the Physical/Cognitive realms…? Also the shadow stretching in the wrong direction like all the Aimians have – does that mean that whole people have/had some kind of presence in Shadesmar that can be seen in the Physical realm?

The sailors are all dead? ...well, shit.

Wait, and the sailors were right about greatshells coming here to die? That wasn't just a pirate-treasure sort of legend? (not that it matters, as none of them are left to even see it)

The cook? (Always, the cooks are so important in these books…) Ahhhhh, another cremling-person, fffffftttt- We need more information on these people, stat.

“The cost would be the ends of worlds.” Plural. Something exists in Aimia that could affect the greater Cosmere. Well then.

Interlude Five – Taravangian

FUCK OFF YOU OLD MURDER-MAN

“Today, Taravangian was a storming genius.” I can't help but laugh at the phrasing, even as a corner of my mind just goes fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck-

He is not wasting time here on pleasantries of any sort, but just powering ahead and being a complete ass as he does.

Well, that answers my question of 'does Malata know bout Taravangian and his plans' though I did not expect that she'd already been a member of the Diagram before she'd become a Radiant. I am somewhat pleased at knowing 'the Dustbringers would be the Radiants most likely to accept their cause', not because it gives me any pleasure to know that goddamn storming Taravangian is getting any Radiants on his side, but because it's another step closer to confirming my suspicion that the Dustbringers are the I Will Do What Must Be Done order, closest of the Radiants to the-ends-justify-the-means.

GIVE US MORE DUSTBRINGER INFO, SANDERSON, I DEMAND IT

H e r alds but smart!Taravangian is an insufferable ass, both to other people and in his own head

“That day, he'd been God. Today, he could be God's prophet.” I'd start to wonder if you were Odium-influenced too, but this seems different – too detached even in your moments of grandest self-glorying – to be Odium's touch

And here we have the complete opposite of Jasnah, who's a beautiful example of atheism done right; this is the kind of atheism that glorifies ~~science~~ and spits on others' beliefs while holding itself above all else – its' own manner of extremist fundamentalism

'the Dalinar paradigm' sounds foreboding

Wildcard Renarin! Oooo, is he a blindspot in more than just Taravangian's Diagram, I wonder?

Well, that's just unnecessary. Storming hell, Taravangian.

Reference note – Vargo. Probably Taravangian's given name.

Okay but indoor farming would indeed explain a good part of Urithiru's self-sufficiency – which it had to be – and is probably related to the existence of the uber-fabrial that extends through the whole city.

“the part of the world that mattered” aaahahahahahahah fuck you Taravangian

“Then we force him to step down, so that I can take his place at the head of the monarchs.” AAAAHAHAHAHAHAH WELL GUESS WHAT YOU'RE GONNA GET HIGHKING KHOLIN SOONER OR LATER SO EVEN IF YOU DO IT'S NOT GONNA FUCKIN' MATTER

To be fair, pushing Dalinar until he collapses isn't a bad plan, considering the pressure the world is exerting and the weight he places on himself, but he's still the Tank, come on.

[rolls over laughing at the thought of Taravangian thinking he has any bargaining power against Odium]

Fuck off, you senile psychopath.

Interlude Six – This One Is Mine

Another Venli chapter, and thins time she's going to open herself for a Form of Power. And yet, with that title as well as the spren that followed you last time… I don't think this will you the way you think it will. Just a hunch.

….do the Parshendi actually have gemhearts. I mean, I would make sense considering their change of forms, but… still.

No rainwater from this storm. Just ash. (But didn't the Everstorm bring rain when we saw it in Edgedancer?)

[hums] Have we seen Demid's new Fused-form yet? The ridges under the carapace sounds like a form we might have seen in one of Kaladin or Moash's chapters, but perhaps it's different.

Mmm. Though Venli's form changed, indicating a new kind of bonded spren, she retained her mind. Not a Voidspren, then. Handful of sapphires says that the little comet-spren had something to do with it.

“grand of the Fused”? Ooooo, you're important, you have a title

...or maybe you just have a tendency to crush anything that doesn't pay obeisance. That works too.

[winces] What an awakening for Venli, and what a truly horrible way for it to happen.

Well, even if you didn't bond with the little spren, it's there. Not 'one of the same' spren you saw near Eshonai, but the very one, there's no way it isn't.

And you protected it.

#blink reads oathbringer #oathbringer spoilers #//holy fuuuuuuuuck #[ROLLSROLLSROLLS]

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