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nightblink · 6 years

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Blink Reads Oathbringer - Chapters Five, Six, and Seven

Chapter Five – Hearthstone

FINALLY A KALADIN CHAPTER

(this being one of the other chapters I read pre-release)

Kaladin is going home, aaaaaahhhhhhh

He's already depressed over being too late, this does not bode well for his mental state, he's been whiplashed from Syl's 'death', to his realization and going to protect Elhokar, to Moash's betrayal and saying his next oath, to the battle on the Plains and saving Dalinar and battling Szeth, and now this.

Let the poor guy rest.

The description of the fields with the rising motes of lifespren is giving me a Ghibli vibe. Specifically, the forest in Princess Mononoke.

Walking from the Aladar princedom to Hearthstone in the Sadeas princedom? I am now even more miffed that we aren't. given. a distance scale. on the map of Alethkar.

I'm not asking for a full elevation DEM with datum and georeferencing I just want a scale is that so much to ask

Syl is a blessing, as she's ever been. Designing herself a little havah! Immediately forgetting it to turn into a stormcloud and then a lurg!

Awwww, he's not in his Bridge Four uniform? Drat. At least it's a Kholin uniform, but still. They should have been able to scrounge up a patch at the very least. Is it an officer's open coat, or a standard soldier's closed-coat? Sanderson, these are important details.

He's really pessimistic about this, but I'm thinking it's not going to be as bad as he fears. Fingers crossed.

Not that the destruction and lack of people when he arrives puts any lie to his worry.

Even thinking about Roshone right now is enough to make me growl. Bastard. The manor is the most likely place to be fortified and survive, though. No doubt he's still around.

...except that the parshmen were there. Right.

!!! An 'aunt'? Spren-hunts? More about spren society? Interrelationships? Syl, tell us more.

At least there are still people alive and present. That's enough to give Kaladin a flicker of hope, and he of all people needs that right now.

Chapter Six – Four Lifetimes

Nobody is going to recognise you, Kaladin, you've changed too much – you've grown, in more ways than just your outer form.

“Don't make me down you, son.” Okay, I had far too much fun cackling at this man's expense. Please sir, try. Make my day.

Oh, Kal. I know this isn't the way you wanted to return, but keep moving and keep your head held high. Please.

“There are wounded?” Yes! Go! Be a medic, Kal! And while you're there, where there are wounded there will be-

LIRIN

I'm sorry but Kaladin absentmindedly handing the guard his ass is far, far too amusing

LIRIN. WHO IMMEDIATELY KNEW. AND CALLED FOR HESINA AND RAN TO HUG KALADIN, AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH-!

“My little boy.” even though Kaladin probably towers over his father by now, he'll always be Lirin's little boy

Shockspren, those are new

You can practically hear his voice breaking with his confession, and my heart hurts for him, oh Kaladin, you tried, you tried

HUGPILE. THIS IS JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR CALLED FOR.

More on food, good, good, I want all the little cultural details

Awwww, his parents are trying to protect him in whatever way they can; they probably think he escaped enslavement, stole a uniform for ease of travel…

'She talked to him as if he were a child.' Yeah, I was picking that up – you did leave when you were a child, but it's been years since then, and they weren't there for that passage of time. You've all changed, but been apart for it.

'And four lifetimes.' Chills. But good ones.

YUP they definitely still think he's a slave

I'm psyched for the sheer glee I know I'll feel when he disproves that. He's been hanging around the Kholins for too long and their Extra™ has been rubbing off on him.

….is Syl bound close enough to Kaladin to start 'remembering' his memories?! !!!!! Oh man, my love for soulbonds is having a field day with all these Nahel bond revelations!

Syl. Syl what was that 'other song'. Syl I demand to know

Kaladin, everybody looks small because you're tall now. Not to mention you've been spending your time amongst soldiers, especially densely muscled ones like your bridgemen, built-like-a-brick-wall Dalinar, and I-beat-Shardbearers-for-a-living Adolin. Also Rock, who is a small mountain.

...hello, Roshone. Fuck off.

YES

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

“That,” Kaladin said, “was for my friend Moash.”

FUCKING EAT IT, ROSHONE. YOU DESERVE THAT AND WORSE

Chapter Seven – A Watcher at the Rim

You can just see Lirin's dropped jaw, along with everyone else in the room. And yes, Syl, thank you for agreeing.

I still want to punch something in celebration, that was glorious

“unsettled debt” HEH. And one that Roshone has no idea even exists. Doesn't matter. He still needs his teeth rearranged.

Do better.

Oh fiiiiine. Still. He deserved it.

Kal dressing those soldiers down like a drill sergeant is almost just as satisfying, as is his barking orders to Roshone.

…..he's equal rank to Roshone now, isn't he? Landed lighteyes overseeing a region are fourth dahn, as are Shardbearers. And Kaladin has far more authority. Oh, this is going to be fun.

The soldiers certainly sense it. Good for them.

SYLBLADE

“feeling his eyes bleed to blue.” He can feel that? What kind of a feeling is it? Like stormlight, ozone-mist and luminous? Is it only a faint sensation, or one that can't be missed? I must know

Brightlord. Ohhhhh, I don't know how Kal's going to feel about that title….

Kaladin, you're speaking about the king by name again. This time, in front of people who probably have no idea that you are/were his bodyguard.

Oooo, Roshone might be fifth dahn, if he doesn't actually “have stewardship over any of the highprince's lands”.

“I am an elegant and graceful weapon, stupid.” Syl, I love you. Also liking the distinction between her and Wyndle here, since Wyndle also considered himself quite the elegant Shardfork but didn't want at all to be a weapon.

Some of the old spren have four genders? @spasticcharge mentioned that to me since she got the book before I did, and mentioned that it could be male-female-malen-femalen, matching with the Parshendi, considering their changes via spren-bond. Doubly reinforced by Sly saying “Because humans didn't imagine those ones, silly.”

“As much as I hate it, we don't have time to oust Alethkar's ruling class and set up something better.” START A SOCIAL REVOLUTION, KALADIN

Laral! You're… not as I expected to see either. The whole marriage to Roshone was squicky as hell. You've changed too. Grown. Hardened, but… not in a bad way, have you? Your soldiers respect you, you're competent, and Syl likes you. That says a lot.

I didn't expect you to defend Roshone, though.

No Lirin, he hasn't hardened as much as you think. He still has that emotional core that rules him. He's just used to making do with what he has, which has usually been little to nothing.

Life before death. Said to Lirin, echoed with Dalinar. [sc r e am s]

Already calling Urithiru “home”, are you?

BROTHER

I know my dash already spoiled me for it but I DON'T CARE. BROTHER BROTHER KALADIN HAS A BROTHER

Oroden

[weeps]

Glowing Kaladin standing framed in the doorway as he rises into the air, reassuring the people of Hearthstone. It's as good a guarantee as they can get, and more importantly, he's given them a cause for hope.

#blink reads oathbringer #oathbringer spoilers #and now I have to sleep because I still have work tomorrow #/alas/

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preservationandruin · 7 years

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Words of Radiance Part Four Part One

Sorry for the hiatus, gang! A combination of finals, a summer road trip into Canada, generally being busy, trying to write a novel this summer, and dreading reading through the downward spiral Kaladin’s story arc takes contributed to this taking far too long, but I’m back now! I realized that if I want to get this and Edgedancer done before the next book comes out, I should put some work into it--especially with school starting up for me again soon!

Kaladin is in jail, Shallan is working through her illusions and memories, Kaladin is still in jail, Shallan has flashbacks and works with the ghostbloods, and Kaladin is still in jail.

WARNING: Shallan’s flashback section includes mention of intense emotional abuse and animal cruelty, as well as physical abuse.

Part Four is “The Approach,” and our perspectives are Kaladin, Shallan, and Dalinar--we’re back to Dalinar now that he’s already bonded that shardblade that he will later use to completely one-up Amaram. We’re away from Adolin so that we can preserve the suspense of Adolin having fucking thrown himself in jail why is he like this.

Anyway, we open with a bit of Frost’s letter to Hoid, pointing out the fact that Frost has no fucking idea what Hoid is calling himself right now, which, fair. Meanwhile, Kaladin is in jail. Also, he’s missing the wind, which is sad. GIVE MY BOY THE SKY BACK.

“On the third day of his imprisonment, he heard a disturbance from farther inside the prison, beyond his chamber. [...’ What was that shouting? It echoed in from the hallway.”

HI ADOLIN. Knowing what that is makes this segment much funnier. Also Kaladin imagines for a moment that it’s Bridge Four coming to try to break him out, which I’m honestly surprised that they didn’t do. Also, Syl would be down for helping Kaladin break out if it was what Kaladin wanted to do and what was right--she clarifies that she’s not like a highspren, who cares about laws. I’d be interested in meeting some highspren at some point; I’m sure it’ll happen eventually.

Kaladin snaps and says that Dalinar is the same as all the others and Syl calls him the fuck out for it, getting him to admit that Dalinar is good--and now we’re getting his hatred for Elhokar and realization that Elhokar is a bad leader coming to the fore, and Syl is getting more and more bothered and scared.

Aaaaand Wit shows up. He may have literally pulled a bench in with him. The guards may or may not know he’s there. I love him. He also comments that now he has perfect pitch--something he got on Nalthis, I assume. Also he forgets what on earth Roshar’s biology is like and starts talking about “a rabbit and a chick” and confuses the hell out of Kaladin.

And we get the story of Fleet and the race. He ran from the storm. He could even outrun the Herald Chanarach. But he couldn’t outrun the storm. Kaladin’s prompts in this story are heartbreaking: “You can never stay ahead. Not for long.” Talking about Fleet, or himself? That’s the point, isn’t it. Also, Wit drops that Shin is “not a place for [storms]”--another highlight of the fact that it’s the only place in Roshar safe from the storms.

For glory lit, and life alive, for goals unreached and aims to strive. All men must try, the wind did see. It is the test, it is the dream.

So in that land of dirt and soil, our hero stopped the storm itself. And while the rain came down like tears, our Fleet refused to end this race. His body dead, but not his will, within those winds his soul did rise.

It flew upon the day’s last song, to win the race and claim the dawn. Past the sea and past the waves, our Fleet no longer lost his breath. Forever strong, forever fast, forever free to race the wind.”

Fuck, this story still gets me. I love it--the fact that the storm catches everyone, and the fact that it’s left open-ended. I see it as another “Journey before Destination” motif, as well as a story about how you react to adversity--the storm will catch you. Do you have the will to rise afterward, and stop the storm with the force of your will?

I mean, I dunno. That’s what I read into it.

Anyway, Shallan. Notably, she thinks “bastard” the moment she thinks about Amaram, which is The Most Relateable. Pattern is confused as to why Shallan is being irrational (Shallan is doing scholarship). She’s doing it in bed, too, which is a Big College Mood. Navani is still giving her the cold shoulder, though--and she’s also noting that Navani was caring for Dalinar, who “had come down with a sickness.”

Also Shallan references “What Adolin had decided to do last week” and also “his preoccupation” which sounds like she’s talking about the duel and something else, but in fact means he fucking put himself in prison, why is he like this.

Pattern is trying to tell dirty jokes and it’s hilarious because a) he doesn’t get the delivery and b) he explains the joke immediately. He also mentions that Shallan used to know how to make her illusions make sound and Shallan immediately blanks on it. She moves on and Pattern is disturbed. Also, she notes that Amaram was trying to return the Voidbringers.

Shallan also notes that all the scholars are missing something--the Shattered Plains haven’t always been shattered. We keep getting references to the fact that something shattered it. I’m betting money that the death of Honor shattered the Plains. Pattern accuses her of trying to shut things out, and we get this painful admission:

“Would you have me unable to laugh?” she demanded, suddenly holding back tears. “Would you have me crippled? That is what those memories would do to me. I can be what I am because I cut them off.”

This is also when she lightweaves an image of herself as she would be had she not repressed all her memories--a broken, abused child, unable to laugh, unable to cry, unable to really live.

SOMEONE HUG SHALLAN.

In any case, she does practice giving it sound. Pattern learns how to be sarcastic by accident. She also figures out how to get the illusion to move, which is good.

And another heartbreaking Shallan flashback. We get that Shallan learned that if she misbehaved, her father would beat others and say it was her fault--which is some fucked-up emotional abuse. She would drop the mask of a perfect daughter only when alone with her brothers, and took on the emotional labor of keeping their family together. Also, their father was furious when Nan Balat wanted to marry the woman he loved, and stared directly at him while talking about how it was terrible that his new axehound pups all had to be put down. Balat nearly fights with him, and the pups are all killed.

I hate Shallan’s father so fucking much. None of these kids deserved that. Shallan overhears her father ordering Helaran’s assassination. I hate him. Anyway, Malise--the stepmother--speaks up against him, which I can’t imagine goes well.

Back to Kaladin in Prison. He’s really suffering from the lack of access to the sky. He also manages to see what seem to be imprisonmentspren, or whatever they’re called. Also Syl mentions she saw “a cryptic” (Pattern) at the fight. Anyway, Dalinar visits him. And the pair of them are still having decent banter:

“How are your accommodations?” Dalinar asked.

“Sir? I’m in storming prison.”

A smile cracked Dalinar’s face. “So I see. Calm yourself, soldier. If I’d ordered you to guard a room for a week, would you have done it?”

“Yes.” “Then consider this your duty. Guard this room.” “I’ll make sure nobody unauthorized runs off with the chamberpot, sir.”

And Kaladin learns that Roshone was the person who was Elhokar’s friend, who led to the death of the people Moash knows. Dalinar, why did you have to mention that name. Also, we get that Dalinar was “away” when Elhokar was organizing the kingdom and Gavilar was working on the Plains. Was that when he went to the Nightwalker?

Also, we get this exchange:

“You don’t want to know what I think, sir.” “Perhaps I don’t. I probably need to hear it anyway.”

That is absolutely why Dalinar is a good leader. He knows that sometimes he’ll hear things he doesn’t like, and listens anyway. Also, of course Roshone was trusted by Sadeas. Like attracts like.

Also, Kaladin has started to be unable to see Syl, only hear her. Yike. And Kaladin decides Elhokar should die.

Fuck this.

Back to Shallan! She’s having to talk to Adolin on spanreed because he’s in fucking prison and apparently he’s bored. Of course he is. I hate him. I also love him. Why is he like this.

Also apparently Adolin is surprised that Shallan isn’t the jealous type, and she thinks to herself that the idea of acting like that reminds her too much of her father for it to be palatable. Anyway, the pair of them are bantering, which is really cute to read. They can both lowkey snark at each other (Shallan is more proficient, but Adolin can be quite good on his own).

Also Adolin says that he got permission for Shallan to come along on a scouting mission on the plateaus--setting the scene for the moment where Kaladin and Shallan fall into the chasms. Anyway, Shallan is waiting for an information drop from the Ghostbloods, and Iyatil is watching to see how Shallan retrieves the information.

Anyway, she’s figured out how to do animated sequences with her illusions. She also manages to catch and impress Iyatil, and gets her job--to investigate “a new arrival” into Dalinar’s camp--Taln--and basically recruits Iyatil to help her with the job.

I love Iyatil. She’s Scadrian, which is another reason I love her (listen, I’m biased, I love Scadrial). Her conversation with Shallan is interesting as well--asking if Shallan is hunter or quarry (Shallan says neither) and pointing out that everyone is one or the other).

She also manages to get in by claiming that Iyatil is her sister who is going mad. I love this. “Going to feign sickness?” Iyatil asks, unknowing the ridiculousness that is Shallan’s true plan.

Iyatil is So Done With This Bullshit.

Anyway, Taln. Pattern interprets “mad” as “like a spren who has lost his bond.” Also, Shallan assumes that Talenel is lying about being Talenelat’elin, which...no. It’s actually him. He also sees lightweaving and recognizes Shallan as “One of Ishar’s Knights” and she summons her shardblade on instinct. And then sees it and promptly dissociates, thinking that it’s her mother’s soul.

And then Amaram heads toward that room.

Kaladin can feel himself slipping back into the wretch, which isn’t good. He’s also having problems drawing in stormlight--a sign his bond with Syl is getting dangerously weak. Syl is also getting more distractable--more like a windspren again. This hurts.

Anyway, Shallan lightweaves darkness around herself and hides in the dark room. Also Shallan remains relateable:

“She felt like she knew so little. Though Amaram was still a bastard, of course.”

THERE WILL NEVER BE A DAY I DO NOT LOATHE MERIDAS AMARAM.

Amaram also says “Gavilar, we have done it”--meaning that they successfully brought back the Heralds, I assume. Except they really only brought back one of them. And were trying to condemn--even unknowingly--the Parshendi to a lifetime of mental captivity as the Voidbringers.

WAIT. Shallan mentioned that Amaram was trying to meet up with Parshendi to talk about bringing the Voidbringers back. Is he responsible or did he encourage Eshonai’s sister to investigate that more? Fuck. I hate this. Fuck Amaram.

Also, Iyatil asks who she really is, and Shallan is proud of having impressed them--and also identifies herself as “I seek the truth. Wherever it may be, whoever may hold it. That’s who I am.”

She’s a Ravenclaw. One day I’ll full-on do an analysis of all our main characters, but Shallan is such a Ravenclaw with some Slytherin thrown in for flavor.

Anyway, she needs to get a tattoo--she’ll just lightweave it on--and is officially one of the Ghostbloods now. Fuck yeah.

Another flashback. Also, Jasnah having a very interesting perspective on opinions of women in Roshar--she points out that ideally, there shouldn’t be a “place” for women but rather the ability to choose a role, each woman for herself. Shallan, reading it, thinks it’s laughable to think that every woman even has a choice. She tries to go in and see Malise, to see if she’s still alive--she is--and then goes to her father. She makes his favorite wine for him, trying to calm him down.

He remains an abusive shithead. Shallan leaves, saying that Balat should run and leave, taking Malise with him, because their father can’t control himself. She points out that he ordered Helaran’s assassination. Shallan also is trying to make a plan with Balat so he, Malise, and Eylita--the woman he wants to marry--can escape.

God, Shallan did so much for everyone in that house. She shouldn’t have had to. None of them should have had to. She also goes into the room--her father’s study--and nearly dissociates, but brings stuff to Malise, whose left arm is broken. Also, as a note--Malise knows what actually happened, or some of it. She mentions that Shallan is “the one who actually deserves [being hit].”

Shallan doesn’t deny it.

Cutting this here.

#stormlight archive liveblog #roshar #wit's songs #fleet #i loathe meridas amaram #holy foreshadowing batman #i hate shallan's father

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