#kelsier: there's also Ruin but I rather not

[just-cosmere-fan]

Kelsier: Here's some advice

Preservation: I didn't ask for any

Kelsier: Too bad. I'm stuck here with my thoughts and you're the only one I can talk to

#kelsier: there's also Ruin but I rather not #cosmere #cosmemes #mistborn #brandon sanderson #mistborn era 1 memes #kelsier #preservation #shard preservation #leras #incorrect cosmere quotes #incorrect mistborn era 1 quotes #incorrect mistborn quotes #mistborn memes #the secret history

[cosmerelists]

The Most SHOCKING Moment in Every Cosmere Novel

[Spoilers! Spoilers for Everything!]

In this list, I will talk about what I thought was the most shocking moment in every Cosmere novel, in publication order. I tried to be fairly vague in the entry titles so that you could potentially skip around to just the books you've read, but please know that this list is just ridiculously laden with spoilers.

1. Elantris: The Head Injury

So this one is shocking in terms of gruesomeness rather than surprise. For me, the most shocking moment in this book was when Raoden tried to feed the small, "dead" child...and then some other men came along and literally beat the child's head in. This being Elantris, the kid wasn't actually dead, but just suffering horribly forever. The scene HAUNTS me.

2. Mistborn: That One Death

I mean, what could I pick for this particular novel other than the shocking death of a main character. I was NOT expecting Kelsier to actually die...and yes, I know, he's still an active character but it's not like he didn't die. He did! Main character--killed off in Book 1 of a trilogy! I didn't see that coming.

3. Well of Ascension: It's Better To Be Selfish, Actually

Faced with choice of whether to take up supreme power to save the love of her life or let Elend die to save the world, Vin made the heroic choice and let the power go. And that was...the wrong answer?? I did not see THAT coming. Like, "letting the power go" meant releasing Ruin, whereas taking the power for herself would have contained it. So for once, it would have been better to take the selfish road rather than going for the heroic sacrifice.

4. Hero of Ages: The Atium Solution

To be fair, the end of Hero of Ages is pretty much just one shocking moment followed by another, especially with the chain of ascensions and deaths. So this may be controversial, but for me, it was the solution of just eating all the atium that surprised me the most. Like, I think I was braced for everyone to die because the book just had that vibe, but I never expected a group of people to just sit there and chow down on all of the atium until it was all gone to keep it from Ruin.

5. Warbreaker: Villain Reveal

Specifically, for me it was Denth & Tonk Fah that really got to me. They were so likable! Until they weren't. There was also Bluefingers for that matter, whom I had also liked up until it was suddenly Human Sacrifice Time. Honestly, Warbreaker did do a pretty good job of obviating who the bad guys were and what was actually going on.

6. Stormlight Archive: Way of Kings: The Trade

There were plenty of shocking moments in this book, to be fair. I could have chosen the whole Sadeas betrayal. The reveal that Jasnah's soulcaster was fake. Elhokar being his own assassin. But I think for me, it was the moment that Dalinar traded his shardblade for the bridgemen. Sanderson had done SUCH a good job of building up the shardblades as, like, the ultimate item of priceless value, the sort of thing that everyone wanted and no one (other than Kaladin) would give up. So when Dalinar gave his shardblade to Sadeas of all people to save the bridgemen, I was legitimately shocked.

7. Mistborn: The Alloy of Law: What Was Lost

Honestly, I was shocked right out of the gate by the fact that there wereren't any mistborn anymore and the atium was gone. Those had been such staples of the original trilogy!

8. Stormlight Archive: Words of Radiance: That One Death

Again, there's always plenty of shockers in a Stormlight book, but in terms of open-mouthed, did-not-see-that-coming reactions from me, it was Adolin stabbing Sadeas to death. Like, what? I had assumed Sadeas was going to be the recurring big bad, and I also didn't think that little scene was going to end in just a quiet back-alley stabbing.

9. Mistborn: Shadows of Self: That Villain Reveal

Anyone else noticing a pattern? Anyway, I was definitely shocked by the Bleeder-is-Lessie reveal in this. Very deeply shocked! Again, I thought it was just one of those classic the-shapeshifter-takes-on-the-form-of-your-loved-ones-so-you-won't-be-able-to-hurt-them moments but, uh, what a devastating deconstruction of the trope that was!

10. Mistborn: The Bands of Mourning: The Spikes

So again, this one may just be me. But I was just really shocked when MeLaan lost her spikes and dissolved. I know there was a villain reveal and the shocking location of the Bands of Mourning and the whole "there's another continent" thing but somehow it was MeLaan dissolving that really got me.

11. Stormlight Archive: Oathbringer: What Wasn't Said

Listen, I thought I knew the pattern. Put Kaladin into a dire enough situation, he'll say some new oaths and fly to everyone's rescue while glowing. So when the situation got real dire, and it looked like our heroes were all doomed, and Kaladin got ready to say his next oaths...and then he didn't? He didn't say them? He couldn't? I was really shocked!

12. Rhythm of War: The Experiments (Not the ones you're thinking of)

I don't know man, what really got me were those super gross spren experiments Ishar was doing with the embodied spren. The whole mass-of-tentacle-head for the cryptic spren was especially horrifying, not to mention vivisection is just intrinsically shocking for me. It's all heads, villains, and deaths for me, huh? (And listen, I read this before I read any Mistborn, so the Thaidakar reveal was TOTALLY lost on me.)

13. Mistborn: The Lost Metal: The Meat Grinder

The big death in this one was spoiled for me, so unfortunately, I wasn't shocked. Also, I'm not sure I would have been shocked just because I was expecting either Wax or Wayne to die. What did shock me was the meat grinder hotel scene, when Wax killed his way to the top floor of that building (was it even a hotel? That's what it is in my head) and just slaughtered everyone on the way.

13. Tress of the Emerald Sea: The Dragon Scene

I was not shocked by the Huck reveal; I'm proud to say I figured that out for myself (woo-hoo!). But I didn't think Tress would get out of the whole being-traded-to-a-dragon thing but trading the person who was supposed to be trading her.

14. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: The Non-Solution

This one is almost certainly going to just be me. But listen. There is a part of the book where Painter & Yumi are trying to figure out how their separate lives are connected and I don't quite remember why, but I distinctly remember the moment I thought, "Ah ha! It's time travel!" And then. The next sentence. The very next fucking sentence was Design saying, "Well, it's definitely not time travel." And my shock was partly Sanderson reading my mind, and partly that my idea was shot down so quickly!

15. The Sunlit Man: The Fucking Name

I was eagerly reading this book in my office, and when Sigzil was given his new name, I just quietly set my phone down and stared into the distance for like an entire minute, unmoving, unthinking.

This may be the greatest shock in the whole Cosmere, for me.

#cosmere #cosmere lists #cosmere spoilers #I won't tag to help with spoiler control

[marvelousmagicalaura]

I've been having a lot of discussions and thoughts about Ruin's future sight, Preservation's plans, and Harmony's knowledge.

Because of this, I have a good basis on how to write Ruin in my Mistborn AU. Sanderson has hinted that Ruin is the power of change and entropy, so I really want to lean in that direction. Rather than portraying him as the entity of death and destruction that Sanderson wrote him as, I want to write him as the God of Decay and Entropy. Everything we associate with canon Ruin would be parts of his desire/methods of ensuring that all things degrade and decay. Death and destruction are parts of his Intent, but they aren’t forefront in the Intent. The forefront of Ruin’s Intent consists of degradation, entropy, and chaos. To enhance this idea, I may write that AU Ruin pushes people to embrace uncertainty and change.

For example, we know that Ruin canonically pulled the strings behind Kelsier’s rebellion and the discovery of the Eleventh Metal. I would enhance this idea, so that Ruin is responsible for the rise and fall of pre-Rashek empires and kingdoms, war, the advancement of technology, and rebellions. In the Final Empire’s context he would be responsible for guiding its various rebellions, and for advancing technology in the less controlled Dominances.

Ruin weaves and executes multiple, branching schemes to ensure the subtle, slow downfall of Scadrial and its empires. He knows there are countless ways his Intent is present in the Universe, and will execute them through any avenue. I would significantly expand on his actions throughout history.

I desperately intend to expand upon Ruin’s precognitive abilities. It doesn’t feel right downplaying Ruin’s future sight when the only WoB we have about it came from 2012, way before Sanderson truly incorporated precognition into the Cosmere. Not only that but the Mistborn trilogy was written before he solidified Cosmere-wide mechanics. I think that once a Mistborn adaptation comes out, we will truly see his abilities in action.

AU Ruin’s future sight would still be inferior to Preservation. It feels slightly wrong LMAO, but it’s necessary for the ending. But it’s far better than Elend’s future vision and Odium’s future sight.

I haven’t read Stormlight yet, but I heard that Odium definitively has future sight. Going by the IRL definition of the word “odium,” I believe canon Ruin’s Intent of causing death and destruction requires a lot more foresight/planning than inducing hatred.

AU Ruin would also be so much more destructive when released. I want to give Ruin more influence over the world by creating more natural disasters - earthquakes with more impact, floods, earthquakes, blizzards, thunderstorms, tornadoes and hurricanes, scenes of Luthadel’s death etc…

Right now I plan to say that weakened Ruin w/ Preservation’s presence can manipulate phenomena that already exists in Scadrial's natural science. He can manipulate and create anything on the planet to his liking, but he can't _completely_ destroy its structure. He can't do feats like reduce the continents to nothingness, boil the oceans in their entirety, or burn the planet down until nothing remains.

But he can do everything the Lord Ruler accomplished during his Ascension. Weakened Ruin can move the continents or split them apart, move the planet, boil the oceans so they’re absurdly hot, and make the planet hotter or colder.

#mistborn #cosmere #mistborn critical #cosmere critical #mistborn rewrite #mistborn ruin #brief mention of stormlight #brief mention of odium #ruin is the god of decay and entropy #can’t see how odium could possibly see into the future better than odium #better see some of ruin’s future sight in the mistborn adaptation

[joyfulexperiment]

Joyful Experiment, Day #2: "Vin," charcoal

"I already overthrew one government," Vin said. "I figure that takes care of my 'civic duty' for a while.” - Brandon Sanderson's The Well of Ascension

(Art diary and musings under the cut)

I'm rather proud of this one - there's a lot to work on, but the pose and the hands and feet turned out so much better than usual! I've pictured Vin here around the time of the second book, The Well of Ascension, when her hair has grown out somewhat from her boyish chop. Her shirt looks more uniformly grey on paper - it came out as splotches in the scan. I was trying to be faithful to Sanderson's never-ending reminders that Vin wears "a simple shirt and trousers" (my brother and I joked we should start a drinking game based on every time that phrase is used.) Much fanart embellishes her costume, and I think those looks are really neat, but I also dared not ruin a good thing by overburdening the picture. I chose not to give her the cloak because I was pleased with the pose and didn't want to obscure it.

A couple of years ago I spent a good semester or so (I'm a teacher - we think in semesters long after everyone else stops doing so) completely obsessed with Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. I think it was mainly the clever plotting and incredible worldbuilding that I fell for, because upon revisiting it I do find that a certain amount of the charm has evaporated now that I know all the secrets, and the flaws are a little more obvious. However, this did not stop me from falling head over heels weeks later with Sanderson's infinitely superior Stormlight Archive, which holds up far, far better. and it's held a a place of esteem in my heart to this day. (The two series also connect in magnificent ways while also standing alone, and there are a few characters whom I still love very much.)

Even though I'm not in love with Mistborn the way I was, one of the first things I decided when I began to plan this art challenge was that I wanted to sketch Vin, the protagonist. What I appreciate about Vin is the way her arc explores the concept of trust and hope being the same thing, which is a concept dear to my heart (Fr. Michael Gaitley has written about it extensively, and it's worth diving into.) I loved seeing the way Vin learns trust is worth it, even if that trust is betrayed, first through her time with Kelsier's crew and later through her relationship with Elend.

#art challenge #traditional art #fanart #cosmere #mistborn #vin mistborn #brandon sanderson #cfsbf

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Okay, I have now read Well of Ascension, Hero of Ages, and Mistborn: Secret History. Main thoughts:

Undead Huan was the unexpected highlight of Well of Ascension. The relationships between Vin and TenSoon was wonderful! The gradual growth from mutual loathing; to Vin realising she was treating him cruelly and high-handedly in the same manner her crewleaders had treated her, and learning to empathize with him; TenSoon gradually shifting from finding the dog body degrading to finding freedom in it, an opportunity to express his own identity for once rather than mimicking someone else’s; Vin finding out he was an infiltrator and caring out him anyway; TenSoon risking the freedom of his entire people for her be ause he trusted her....this is one of Brandon’s masterpieces of empathic writing, and managed with a species that in the first book I hadn’t thought about beyond ugh, that’s incredibly creepy. TenSoon may be my second-favourite Mistborn character after Sazed.

The koloss are still super disturbing. Starting in Well of Ascension with “oh, they’re basically orcs” (or more like ogres? I think some settings have blue ogres?) moving to the revelation of “oh, no, they’re literally orcs” (i.e., Tolkien-style: corrupted and mutilated transformation of other sapient beings) was a major horror moment. Everything about Hemalurgy is horror-movie-level, really.

I honestly felt sorry for Elend’s friend in Well of Ascension, because trying to act rightly out of genuine idealism and seeing your whole family slaughtered because of it is one of the worst things I can imagine. (No, Elend, being voted out of office is not remotely comparable. C-minus diplomacy, there.) Elend’s execution of him was justifiable, since he did loose an army of koloss on a civilian population and then failed to take respinsibility for his actions. And it illustrates to me - as with Moash in the Stormlight Archive - that in Sanderson’s books the one unforgivable action is to stop trying. You can fail, you can do terrible things, you can attempt to make things better and instead make them worse (almost all the Mistborn protagonists do that!), but you have to respond by taking responsibility, continuing to try, and not giving up. Always the next step. The ones who refuse to take that next step die as villains.

The Stormlight Archive has had some dark moments, but Well of Ascension and Hero of Ages on a whole different level in terms of how bleak they get. Virtually everything the protagonists do - Vin giving up the power of the Well; the recruitment and use of the koloss; the wars; Spook’s revolution - are directly orchestrated by Ruin and play into his hands. In many cases, Ruin is playing both sides against each other! (And I’ve never seen the Orphan’s Plot Trinket trope used in precisely that way before!) This is a case where I’m very glad to have been spoiled on the ending (Sazed Ascending) beforehand, because I don’t think I could have kept reading without the knowledge that it turned out all right.

The Lord Ruler becomes a much more tragic figure - granted, he did screw everything up with moving the planet to the wrong place, and he was tyrannical and self-interested even without Ruin’s influence (e.g. subjugating the Terris people to prevent others from finding out what he did), but he also genuinely did try to prevent the world from being destroyed, and it seems like things like the random mass executions were attributable to Ruin’s influence.

The ending of Hero of Ages, with Sazed using the knowledge in his copperminds to restore the world, and understanding the value of all the religions he’d learned after spending the rest of the book doubting them, was one of the most beautifully-written eucatastrophes I have read. His storyline was emotionally wrenching to read (I love him! he’s such a kind and hopeful person! and seeing him lost in despair was so sad! every chapter with him was just no, please stop being sad D: I will give you all the hugs), but the payoff of it was wonderful - that going through what he did and still coming out the other side willing to believe was what made him able to hold Ruin as well as Preservation.

I had regarded Sazed’s storyline in Hero of Ages as an entirely normal crisis of faith after losing a loved one and was surprised when Secret History said it was the consequence of Ruin continually trying to break him down. That really stands out - all the other main characters, Ruin could manipulate to serve his ends, but he’d never have been able to do that with Sazed so he sought to drive him to despair instead.

Kelsier punching not one but both gods of Scadrial is so on-brand for him.

Kelsier and Wit hating each other is hilarious because they have pretty much the exact same personality. Deilberately taunting and abrasive? Yep. Entirely irreverent? Yep. Complete smartmouths? Yep. Meeting Wit is exactly what Kelsier deserves - now he gets the experience of dealing with himself!

#brandon sanderson #mistborn #vin #kelsier #hoid #sazed #kandra #tensoon #the stormlight archive

[neuxue]

Who are some of your favorite villains?

Oh man, that is a question, anon. This is not a comprehensive list, because if I started listing every morally corrupt character who owns my soul, we’d be here all night. I’ve also taken a somewhat flexible definition of villainy at times, because…it’s complicated.

Also, spoilers for uh…most of the things listed; I’ve tried to keep it vague where possible, but the nature of villainous arcs means sometimes that doesn’t work. I’ve listed the work before the commentary, so if you don’t want spoilers for the thing, skip that section.

In no particular order…

Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter (His Dark Materials): okay, so arguably they’re not villains, per se, but they each serve as antagonists at various points, they’re ambitious and proud beyond belief, and their morality is…well. Complicated. (Did I lose my mind at the ‘corruption and envy and lust for power. Cruelty and coldness. A vicious probing curiosity. Pure, poisonous toxic malice […] you are a cesspit of moral filth’ speech, from a corrupt angel to the one deceiving him? Abso-fucking-lutely. Also ‘I wanted you to come and join me. And I thought you would prefer a lie’). They’re also on this list because they were my Formative Villain Faves from the age of 7, which probably tells you something about who I was as a child and who I am as a person.

Nirai Kujen (Machineries of Empire). You really…could not write a villain more My Type if you tried. I’m not sure I could write a villain more My Type if I tried. Immortal, immoral mathematician who traded empathy for the ability to act on it, reconfigured a universe, and has lost most of his humanity but not his sense of beauty? I am but a simple woman. It helps that there is one hell of an enemies/allies/lovers dynamic going on between him and another character who is a different sort of my type, and it’s precisely my kind of Fucked Up Power Dynamics.

Moridin (Wheel of Time): ’Your logic destroyed you, didn’t it?’ I have a whole…thing about villains who see themselves as a kind of anti-Chosen One. I’ve written about it slightly more coherently elsewhere, but it comes down to a particular kind of despair and perception of inevitability, that they have no choice but to fight and that their role is always to lose, and that they will be cast and remembered as the monster, and so there is not reason not to be monstrous, but that doesn’t help with the self-hatred.

Semirhage (Wheel of Time): I could pick a lot of the Forsaken, and one or two other characters from WoT but I’ll stick to two here. Semirhage is all about pain without emotion, and I’m into it.

Malkar (Doctrine of Labyrinths): okay, he’s sort of in the category of scenery-chewing villain you love to hate, but I do love to hate him. And he causes so much delicious pain for the major characters; it’s almost like he’s running a charity service for those of us who like watching our favourite characters hurt.

Aaravos (The Dragon Prince): Listen. Listen. Trapped in a mirror, lost and alone and yet only letting that show in glimpses, possibly a Prometheus figure, graceful and beautiful and terrible, and that voice. Also the entire aesthetic. He is awful, and he is a delight, and he has that kind of cruelty that you can almost forget about - it’s as though he’s so into the villain aesthetic that you almost think it’s just an aesthetic, almost forget how capable he truly is of horrors, and so when he commits them it’s all the more thrilling.

Astrid & Athos Dane (Shades of Magic): The Dane twins deserved better. And by better I mean more screen time. They were criminally underused as villains and they had such potential. Vicious and cruel in a world where to be otherwise is to die, holding power by blood and pain, and chaining another …well, if not villain then certainly antagonist to their will, forcing him to serve the world he wants to save? Which brings us to…

Holland (Shades of Magic): Holland is…arguably not a villain but as an antagonist he is absolutely my type: powerful and ruthless and broken, and yet somehow still fighting; a character whose defining trait is his extraordinary will (and also self-hatred); a character who, literally in canon on the goddamn page, is told ‘no one suffers as beautifully as you’. (Plus he gets a redemption arc! That lets him remain complicated and doesn’t undermine his competence! And while it falls into redemption-equals-death, his death doesn’t come at the turning point in his arc the way it does for so many villains - he gets a whole road-trip first!)

Melisande Shahrizai (Kushiel): oh man. She’s such an interesting character, and the narrative does an excellent job of creating that link between her and Phedre - a really, really compelling and beautiful form of 'you know it’s a terrible idea but you can’t help yourself’. Also, she and Marisa Coulter should never be allowed to meet (by which I mean, I would read that fic). I’m also always here for a female villain who gets to be complicated, who has depth beyond just the typical 'femme fatale’ (though Melisande could certainly claim that title), and who is truly central to the story rather than there to look pretty.

Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender): For all that I love Zuko, he doesn’t belong on this list, flexible as my definition of 'villain’ here is. Azula, on the other hand…sharp and vicious and a void of anger and fear inside, and if she has to feel that, then the world should too.

Zhao (Avatar: The Last Airbender): It’s at least 85% the voice, and the other 15% is the way he looks at Zuko (I know, I know, I’m sorry).

Rhaegar (A Song of Ice and Fire): Rhaegar’s villainy is…complicated, but he gets a spot here anyway. I have a niche subtype that can be defined as Sad Harpists (Rhaegar, Maglor, Deth, Morgon, Asmodean), so that’s part of it, as is the way he sets that aside out of what he perceives as necessity. But also most of his draw is how he’s this shadow hanging over the entire narrative and yet is himself a void in it; we see so little of him, know so little of him in truth, catch only glimpses and will never know what’s behind them, and every character sees him differently, and he has defined all their lives but we know almost nothing of his. I’m all about identity and choices, and the fact that his are so thoroughly obfuscated but have such a lasting impact on the entire world really does it for me.

Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade): Does she count as a villain? I suppose it depends entirely on whose point of view you’re watching from, which is kind of the point. Regardless, she is so much of what I want from a character, from an author who doesn’t do things halfway. Intelligent and ambitious and utterly ruthless, to both herself and the world she wants to burn down around her.

Delilah Briarwood (Critical Role Campaign 1): any character whose cry of agony and despair takes the form of 'I broke the world for us!’ is a character I’m going to like.

The Lone Power (Young Wizards): mostly because the traditional greeting, upon encountering them, is ’fairest and fallen, greetings and defiance’, and I am a simple woman. But also because they’re the Lucifer figure, in all senses - evil, perhaps, but mostly a necessary embodiment of entropy, one who must exist and must struggle and must always lose, beautiful and bright and terrible, and oh so proud.

Judas (Christian Mythology): He betrayed a guy with a kiss. What more do you want from me?

Rin (the Poppy War): By the end, she makes a very compelling case for herself as a Villain Protagonist and I, for one, am into it. Also, 'genocidal’ gets tossed around a lot when villains are discussed, often without cause, so uh…points to Rin for actually deserving it? (This book is strongly in the category of Not For Everyone, but if it’s your thing…weaponising gods.)

Loki (Marvel franchise & Norse Mythology): so, I have a complicated relationship with 'trickster’ figures and characters, in that I like the idea of them, but tend only to actually enjoy the ones who fall on the darker side of that line they all dance around. Loki, in pretty much all his incarnations, fits that mould.

Achilles (Greek Mythology): Is Achilles a villain? Depends who you ask. But he’s powerful and proud and doomed, and knows it. I just…heroes who go out in a blaze of glory are all well and good, but villains who step up to the flames of their own damnation?

Ruin (Mistborn): It’s funny; I really enjoy a lot of Sanderson’s stories, but by and large he tends not to write my type of villain (which I will forgive him because he gave me Kelsier). But Ruin…starts off like just another godlike semicorporeal villain with absurd power, as you do, and then gets significantly more interesting – and tragic – when you learn the full story. I have a thing for villains who chose their villainy out of necessity (with a side helping of hubris) and become that which they most hated or feared. The ones who look at a razor’s edge and think 'I can walk that’. Who look at power that will consume them and think 'I can control it’. It’s a very specific kind of… arrogant sacrifice, I suppose, and it never ends well and I’m into it every time.

#i feel like i should apologise #but i'm really not sorry for any of these #anyway you asked for it #so now you get to witness my shame #asks #anon #book recs #recommendations #i need a better villains tag

[imaginarycosmere]

One of the biggest themes of the Cosmere is Rebirth. The very first book (Elantris) starts with a character coming back from the dead. (As I've mentioned before, a big part of the inspiration for Elantris was a zombie story, from the viewpoint of the zombie.) Mistborn begins with Kelsier's rebirth following the Pits, and Warbreaker is about people literally called the Returned. (People who die, then come back as gods.) The Stormlight Archive kicks off with Kaladin's rebirth above the Honor Chasm, and Warbreaker is meant as a little foreshadowing toward the greater arc of the cosmere--that of the Shards of Adonalsium, who are held by ordinary people. [...] However, the story of the cosmere isn't really about who lives or dies. We established early on that there is an afterlife (or, at least, one of the most powerful beings in the Cosmere believes there is--and he tends to be a trustworthy sort.) And multiple books are about people being resurrected. What I'm really interested in is what this does to people. Getting given a second try at life, being reborn as something new. (Or, in some cases, as something worse.) The story of the cosmere is about what you do with the time you have, and the implications of the power of deity being in the hands of ordinary people. More importantly (at least to me) I've always felt character deaths are actually somewhat narratively limp in stories. Perhaps it's our conditioning from things like Gandalf, Obi-Wan, and even Sherlock Holmes. But readers are always going to keep asking, "are they really dead?" And even if they stay dead, I can always jump back and tell more stories about them. The long cycle of comic books over-using resurrection has, I think, also jaded some of us to the idea of character death--but even without things like that, the reader knows they can always re-read the book. And that fan-fiction of the character living will exist. And that the author could always bring them back at any time. A death should still be a good death, mind you--and an author really shouldn't jerk people around, like I feel I did with Jasnah. But early on, I realized I'd either have to go one of two directions with the cosmere. Either I had to go with no resurrections ever, stay hard line, and build up death as something really, really important. Or I had to shift the conversation of the books to greater dangers, greater stakes, and (if possible) focus a little more on the journey, not the sudden stop at the end. I went with the latter. This isn't going to work for everyone. I'm fully aware of, and prepared for, the fact that things like Szeth coming back will ruin the stories for some readers. And I do admit, I've screwed it up in places. Hopefully, that will teach me better so that I can handle the theme delicately, and with strong narrative purpose behind the choices I make. But do warn you, there WILL be other resurrections in my books. (Though there are none planned for the near future. I took some extra care with the next few books, after feeling that things happening in Words and the Mistborn series in the last few years have hit the theme too hard.) This is a thing that I do, and a thing that I will continue to do. I consider it integral to the story I'm telling. Hopefully, in the future, I'll be able to achieve these acts with the weight and narrative complexity they deserve. If it helps, I have several built-in rules for this. The first is that actual cosmere resurrections (rather than just fake-outs, like I did with Jasnah) can happen only under certain circumstances, and have a pretty big cost to them. Both will become increasingly obvious through the course of the stories. The other rule is more meta. I generally tell myself that I only get one major fake-out, or one actual resurrection, per character. (And I obviously won't use either one for most characters.) This is more to keep myself from leaning on this narrative device too much, which I worry I'll naturally do, considering that I see this as a major theme of the books.

Brandon on Rebirth and Resurrection in the Cosmere

#quote #wob #cosmere #cfsbf #brandon sanderson #resurrection #character death #stormlight archive #mistborn #elantris #warbreaker #from reddit

[mistralrunner]

Running Reads Oathbringer: Part II.V

Wow, it’s been a week since Oathbringer came out. I feel like Part I was ages ago.

Spoilers for pages 529-554 below. Again, also Mistborn spoilers.

Hmmmm

Hmmmmmmmm

That "I think" vocal tic

Sazed?!?!?!

Aaaaaaaaa

It has to be intentional right

Aaaaaaaaa Sazed I missed you

I still don't even know for sure if it's you but I miss you

Now back to actual plot

I have hope that these Parshmen slaves will escape the command of the Fused

Moash you can follow Kaladin's example. Just waiting to you to realize that. Eventually.

Ah Moash does know now

Kind of wish we got his initial reaction to learning that of all the groups he ended up with he ended up with the one that met Kaladin Stormblessed

Okay turning your eerie carapace into a saw is pretty cool

And the idea that these vengeful ghosts included carpenters, in a weird echo of the Heralds providing knowledge of Professions

Ironic that the beginning of each Desolation is a restoration of knowledge but it's geared toward war and destruction

I still can't believe that the Bridge Four situation with people being sacrificed to soak up arrows is happening again

Concerning/comforting to know some of the Voidbringers are crazy? Still not sure which.

The floating Voidbringers really do have an aesthetic

Kaladin's still the master of wind and sky though

Voidlight...

I guess that's a good name for it

That is a pretty cool and intimidating way to have a meeting

I am curious about this Leshwi

Moash is a Parshmen name? The ironies grow. How did that happen linguistically though? What were human-Voidbringer interactions that weren't just stabby stabby like in those days

Ah we get the consequences of constantly respawning Voidbringers up close

Huh are they just testing the humans to find the most worthy to their side rather than putting them on a pedestal after initial promise

I'm really worried for Moash

The idea that Parshmen bodies are sacrificed as hosts *shudders*

Okay having Voidlight holding you up just feels creepy and wrong

Ah but initially he was kept alive for potential vengeance

Sacrifice that's not your own, bastard

"Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I'm willing to make"

The whole throw yourselves to die cause if you live you're worthy and you'll be honored mentality so manipulative

Okay I agree Moash that the Alethi stink but the Voidbringers are slavers too

Oh no I'm scared

Kind of worried my wild theory that Moash will be Odium's champion and Kaladin Honor's champion will come true

The irony that he's still in his Bridge Four coat

Ah one last test of loyalty give him the choice of freedom and see what he does

You know at the beginning of this chapter I would have been delighted to see Moash pulling a Bridge Four with the Parshmen but now I am storming terrified

Yep it's Sazed.

Sazeedddddd

We interrupt our Stormlight liveblog because of yet another infiltration of Mistborn feels

I really hope Sazed can help in some way though

He actually is willing to help it seems

Ooh a Rlain pov I was hoping for one of those

Aww he's so alone

But the music thing is interesting. Rhyshadium attract musicspren, the vibrating devices to store information, the idea that humans could listen to the rhythms

What happened to those Listeners who fled though. Can we find them and reunite them with Rlain so he isn't so alone?

Rlain needs a hug

At least all the lady scouts can draw Stormlight

That is rough for Rlain even if Bridge Four does try

I'm glad Renarin and Rlain have some solidarity though

30-50 miles is quite the radius for squires

Admittedly for a Windrunner that can be pretty short but it's much better than say a mile

Yes please give Renarin leeway let him be well rounded

I'm glad they're trying. Stumbling sometimes but trying.

Also I appreciate Rock so much more

Bridge Four heart to heart, multiple people admitting they feel alone and being together in that I love this so much so so much

Yes good Kaladin I'm so glad Rlain gets to talk this out

Wait ancient singers and the potential for humans to hear the Rhythms-did the Dawnchant originate from the Parshmen? The Dawnsingers?

Also I'm starting to consider Illumination as one of the more dangerous Surges to the Radiant using it. You can heal physical damage from a misuse of Gravitation, generally, but Cognitive/Spiritual damage from Illumination perhaps not so much...I'm really worried about Shallan and Renarin now.

Yeah Hoid, the trickster thing might be fun, but it really isn't a way to garner support among the Shards. Being secretive until you want something is suspicious. Also thanks Sazed for asking the questions on all of our minds

I love the mother daughter scholarship trips and all the exposition and context for these visions

This should be interesting too cause it's the Recreance vision right

Two thousand years?

Since it's 1173 when did the calendar start then?

And what happened in the 2.5 millennia after Aharietiam if we're still at bronze weapons

There's a False Desolation?

Yeah what I suspected, the Voidbringers lingered to some degree

And yet people still believed the Desolations were over?

Aww Gawx

I am surprised he's admitting his insecurity to Dalinar of all people

Aww we missed a Lift appearance

I don't trust you white and gold person

Cause I'm pretty sure you're not Adonalsium

Which means you're probably Odium

Who's playing a very twisted and clever game if so

AAAAA IT IS ODIUM

So that comforting warmth at the end of WoR for Dalinar was probably due to Odium

That’s disturbing

And while I suspect that the histories weren't as black and white as they seemed, I trust Hoid's judgment on this one that Rayse shouldn't be trusted

You know Sazed has had the fairest reaction but I fear open honesty for Hoid might be more challenging than the water challenge level

(What if Kelsier is sent to help despite him and Hoid hating each other. Too much of a risk of disaster but it'd be hilarious.)

Back to screaming about how insidious Odium is

Oh no Dalinar is technically capable of freeing Odium that's terrifying

The Ruin and Preservation debacle has prepared me for this

Both in terms of not trusting the kindly voice who wants you to free them and in terms of their arguments about why they're not so bad

Of course Honor or Cultivation at their extremes are bad. As are you, Odium. And you're the only one seeking full domination here.

You know Hoid, now would be a good time for honesty and giving Dalinar an infodump

Oh except for the fact that this entire part has established there's a good chance Hoid will be off world seeking help. Bravo Sanderson.

Oh dear you asked for that Dalinar

Talking to a Shard's avatar is nothing

Meanwhile I'm imagining a wild Kelsier jumping into this scene and continuing his trend of punching gods

Was that nervousness from Odium?

LIFT I LOVE YOU SO MUCH DISSING ODIUM

How much of Cultivation was Invested into Lift

Heh free food to bribe Lift XP

I'm freaking out so much that I'm not even exulting over Lift finally joining the party and thus getting more screentime

#running liveblogs #oathbringer spoilers #running reads oathbringer #I have so many questions and concerns #in a good way