#thaylen battle

[stormtide-leviathan]

Brandon Sanderson (well, a lot of authors really but I’m saying this while listening to stormlight) really needs to get comfortable with revenge. Like no, it doesn’t solve everything, absolutely. But like. You will never convince me that it’s wrong for former slaves to hate their former owners.

#this actually isn’t inspired by moash for once though it fits him too #this is about a conversation with the singers in the battle of thaylen city #where a fused is like ‘no you guys need to hate your masters’ #and some singers were like ‘do we have to fight them? some of them were nice to us’ #and that was when I decided it was time to murder sanderson #cosmere #stormlight #oathbringer #original post

[fangirlamongstotherthings]

Jasnah really said boss bitch, and I love that

#Jasnah kholin #stormlight archive #way of kings #words of radiance #oathbringer #rhythm of war #cosmere #like she was soulcasting #during the battle of thaylen city #not even breaking a sweat #like get it queen #my posts

[belovedfarseer]

The amount of comments on my hero of ages pdf that are just "CINEMA"

#the whole final sequence UGH i literally could picture everything on my mind i need to see this in the big screen #WHEN ALL THE MIST STARTS MOVING TOWARDS VIN >>>> #mistborns spoilers #the final battle is literally PEAK sanderson i cannot stress enough how good it is #thaylen field WHO #it was so quick yet so impactful #the way everything comes together *CHEFS KISS*

[cosmerelists]

Kaladin’s Dramatic Entrances: Ranked

Kaladin is the king of dramatic entrances and the overdramatic one-liners that somehow work. But which entrances are the most dramatic?

[Major spoilers for all Stormlight Archive through Rhythm of War!]

#10: Sneaking into Hearthstone

First on the list is an entrance that wasn’t meant to be dramatic! Kaladin needed to sneak quietly into Hearthstone, dressed as a refugee, and quietly rescue the Mink, and leave without being seen. But it’s Kaladin, so he gets noticed, reveals himself, and ends up fighting (and killing!) the Pursuer for the first time. 

Kaladin doesn’t do things quietly.

#9: Rescuing Cenn

I think this is our actual first Kaladin-dramatic-entrance! We see him through the young recruit Cenn’s eyes, as Kaladin fights as part of Amaram’s army. When Cenn is down and about to die, Kaladin charges in to block the blade at the very last moment. Pretty dramatic!

#8: Leaping into the Chasmfiend’s mouth

While in the chasms with Shallan, Kaladin is trying to fight an enormous, angry, hungry chasmfiend without his powers. In the end, he decides to leap directly into the chasmfiend’s mouth in order to stab it through the top of the mouth into the brain. So he leaps into the mouth...dramatic entrance! Sort of? 

The chasmfiend was surprised! 

#7: Battle of Thaylen City This one is legitimately dramatic...although I think the drama belongs more to Dalinar than Kaladin. It is Dalinar who connects the three realms, allowing Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin to escape back into the real world and help win the Battle of Thaylen City. Drama yes. Drama due to Kaladin specifically? Not entirely.

#6: Returning from the Chasms with Shallan

Kaladin had been missing for days. A high storm had happened. Dalinar was sure he and Shallan were dead. So it was pretty dramatic when Kaladin & Shallan showed up back at camp. Kaladin even got a pithy line in about delivering one prince’s fiancee back safe (although, Kaladin, Shallan 100% saved you). Only slightly less dramatic than the others because he wasn’t, you know, glowing.

#5: Returning Home with Powers

This is kind of a delayed dramatic entrance. Kaladin plays it cool at first (or as cool as a Kaladin can be), letting his parents fuss over him and quietly eating his dinner. But eventually he DOES start glowing and proclaims himself a Knight Radiant so, you know.

#4: The Tower Battle

So many dramatic entrances here! There’s Bridge Four charging the chasm. Kaladin literally running across the bridge while it’s being pushed across and leaping into the waiting Parshendi. Kaladin rescuing Adolin. Kaladin rescuing Dalinar. Everywhere you look it’s Kaladin! Glowing and rescuing people.

#3: Confronting the Pursuer

By this time, people know to expect a dramatic entrance. Sure, Urithiru has fallen. Sure there are Fused everywhere. Still, the crowd waits. They wear Kaladin’s tattoos defiantly. And then Kaladin shows up, shows the Pursuer--sorry, I mean the Defeated One--true fear, tears his head from his body, and flies to the top of the tower to save his father. You know. The usual.

#2: Rescuing Dalinar

Extra dramatic for being the first moment Kaladin reveals his powers to the world at large, by rescuing Dalinar after the highprince is lashed to the sky by Szeth. Let’s not forget “The sky and winds are mine. I claim them. Just as I now claim your life.”

He can just...say things like that.

#1: Honor is Dead

But the 100% most dramatic, classic Kaladin entrance has to be him jumping down into the arena to fight alongside Adolin--against four Shardbearers. Armed with only a spear. “Honor is dead. But I’ll see what I can do.”

We do NOT talk about what happened afterwards.

#cosmerelists #cosmere #Stormlight Archive #Kaladin

[highly-invested]

Oh I have some THOUGHTS on this WoB

Firstly, saying Moash has "further to go than Dalinar went to redeem himself" is definitely a take! I'll unpack that in another post (probably.) Regardless, in a series about self improvement and personal growth, it seems supremely silly to me to frame redemption as something given or earned akin to forgiveness, opposed to just doing better. Redemption is a change in your mind, a conscious decision to reflect on your past and deciding to be better. This goes hand in hand with Evi's "I forgive you" moment kinda spoiling the high point of the battle of Thaylen Field at the end of OB in my opinion

#stormlight archive #cosmere #stormlight spoilers #oathbringer #moash #dalinar

[wanderingchanneler]

I think it’s interesting that the Skybreakers are the only order of Radiant that we know all five Ideals for. It seems like most, if not all of the other orders have to discover things as they go, but the Skybreakers have it mostly worked out, with *some* room for individual choice

The First Ideal for Skybreakers is the generic “Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination.” They call it the Ideal of Radiance

The Second Ideal is the Ideal of Justice. In Szeth’s words, it’s “I swear to seek justice, to let it guide me, until I find a more perfect Ideal.”

The Third Ideal is the Ideal of Law. This is the one Skybreakers have to follow until and unless they swear the Fifth Ideal. I’m not sure what happens if the thing a Skybreaker chooses as their Third Ideal fails before they swear the Fifth, but something Szeth says in RoW makes me think that they’d have to find something else to follow so their Nahel bond isn’t broken. Then again, Szeth’s interpretation might not be accurate, especially since he holds so strongly to rules/codes/Ideals he’s latched onto. Either way, the Skybreaker Third Ideal according to Szeth is “I swear to follow the will of Dalinar Kholin. This is my oath.” We see him grapple with that more in his RoW interlude

The Skybreaker Fourth Ideal is the Ideal of Crusade. This is where they pick a larger goal to attain, and they can only accomplish it if their spren is satisfied. For Szeth, the Fourth Ideal is “I will cleanse the Shin of their false leaders, so long as Dalinar Kholin agrees.”

Again, this is where Skybreakers are different than other Radiants we’ve seen so far. For example, Windrunners don’t know the gist of their Fourth Ideal until they’re forced against it, if Kaladin is a fairly accurate example. Skybreakers know the *idea* of what their Fourth Ideal will be, even if the *details* take form over time. I also think it’s super interesting that they can state what their Fourth Ideal will be in advance, even if it takes months, years, or even decades to accomplish whatever goal they set for themselves. In OB chapter 90, a Skybreaker Master says that they were at the Third Ideal for two decades before attaining the Fourth.

And the Fifth Ideal for the Skybreakers is the Ideal of Law. This is where the Skybreaker becomes law and Truth. Nale is the only example we have in modern times of a Skybreaker who has sworn that Ideal, and his situation is complicated, since he’s a Herald. Even in OB chapter 90, though, a Skybreaker master says that it’s been centuries since a member of their order reached the Fifth Ideal. I don’t know if Nale was the last, or if there have been a few since he reached the Fifth Ideal.

Szeth hasn’t sworn the Fifth Ideal as a Skybreaker. I theorize that he will swear it at some point, partially because it fits so well with a previous headcanon of mine. I also think it’d be super meaningful/impactful for Szeth to swear an Ideal that allows him to make his own decisions/enforce his own will. In OB chapter 106, Nale tells Szeth that he’s the first in a new order of Skybreakers. There has to be some kind of significance to that, but we don’t have all the pieces yet. Nale didn’t prevent Szeth from joining Dalinar and the Coalition after the Battle of Thaylen Field, and I wonder if that was intentional.

If one Radiant swears the Fifth Ideal in KoWT, it *might* be Szeth. I do want him to reach that point eventually, but I also worry that it could feel rushed in KoWT, especially since he said the first Three Ideals so quickly (he said the first two Ideals on the same day, and the Third like a month later lol)

I think I got off track from my original point. This post definitely ended up being longer than I thought it would.

Tl,dr. Skybreakers are unique as far as I can tell/remember, and the fact that their Ideals are broadly laid out ahead of time makes for some interesting possibilities. And I also included Szethposting, because of course I did

#Stormlight Archive #Knights Radiant #Radiant Ideals #Skybreakers #Windrunners #Szeth-son-son-Vallano #Szethposting #Nale #Nale Herald #Nale Stormlight #Oathbringer spoilers #Rhythm of War spoilers #KoWT speculation #Fifth Ideal Radiants #speculation #headcanons

[halflingchill]

After the battle of Thaylen, wind runners absolutely started taking bets on how many times Dalinar will work "the most important step is the next one" into war meetings

#stormlight archive #windrunners #dalinar

[onlycosmere]

Potential timeline discrepancies and their resolutions

jofwu: Someone in the last spoiler stream pointed out that there's an OB flashback where Evi is pregnant, and it reads like it's referring to Adolin. But the timing doesn't work out. They supposed she could have had a miscarriage, and it's just never mentioned in the books. The explanation technically fits... But I doubt it was the intent.

The timeline of the group traveling in Shadesmar in Oathbringer is kind of wacky. The time from Kholinar to Celebrant is extremely asymmetrical with the travel time from there to Thaylen City. I'll be curious to see if they tweak a mention or two of time passing in the OB leatherbound down the road...

In TWoK it reads like Kaladin spends MANY weeks in Bridge Four before he goes to the Honor Chasm. But when you do the math it's something like two weeks? (ten Rosharan days) One of those things where there's nothing technically wrong, but doesn't seem to have been the intent.

Another goofy one is that Shallan spent 6 months chasing Jasnah around by ship to petition to be her ward. Which, when you look at travel times elsewhere in the books, is pretty ridiculous. Did they like, sail around the whole continent once or twice?

The single biggest issue, in my opinion, is that the whole Veden civil war happens in about a month. Navani shares the news about the Assassin in White murdering King Hanavanar at the end of TWoK. That's what sparks the war. Then you have Taravangian showing up in Vedenar in Words of Radiance, prior to the Everstorm, at the end of the war. The Thrill was involved, and tensions were building for a long while... But I'm not sure how they fought a whole war (with their level of technology) in a single month in a country that large.

Peter Ahlstrom:

I asked Karen about these. She says:

Evi's pregnancy

OB CH 36, where Evi is pregnant, is timestamped 24 years ago.OB CH 49, where Adolin is born, is timestamped 23 years ago.A pregnancy on Roshar takes seven of their months. We give the timestamps half a year of leeway.

Shadesmar travel time

I don't have the calculations handy, but we certainly did them. The ship they got from Celebrant was faster than the one they took getting there, and it took them far enough that they could do a forced march to Thaylen City at a specific number of miles per day and arrive on time. We REALLY spent a lot of time getting this right.

Honor Chasm timing

Kaladin is in Bridge Four 18 days before going to the Honor Chasm. He was already close to suicidal before joining.

Shallan chasing Jasnah

It really depends on how directly they traveled and how long they stay in port. The Wind's Pleasure could have gone back and forth to smaller ports with shipments before they could find one going to the city she wanted to go to.

Veden Civil War

I see it as having been a few small battles in each princedom, but then everyone saw a chance to be king and they converged on Vedenar. That left power vacuums in the princedoms and smaller landlords fought there. I don't think that most of the country was in as bad shape as Vedenar.

#the stormlight archive #oathbringer #cfsbf #brandon sanderson #word of peter #root #long post

[cosmereplay]

Any good rlain au’s? Both in world and like modern, basically anything with Rlain

YES!!

There are over 80 fics on ao3 that tag Rlain as a character, but a lot of them have him in the background, so I tried to focus on stories with a Rlain POV, or at least a strong Rlain presence in the story. I also tried to focus on AUs with a storyline, so that knocked out a lot of very lovely Rlainarin oneshots but I can save those for Rlainarin day (Dec 17). This is about Rlain dammit! I couldn't narrow it down to five, so here's my top eight:

Pirate Rlain AU

The Rhythm of Fortune by Truthwatcher_Vez. Rated Teen, 27,000 words, post-OB. Summary: Rlain is a spy in Thaylen City. Then a storm hits and singers seize the Thaylen fleet...This story describes events in a divergent timeline, as they might have happened after the end of Oathbringer.

Ghostbloods on Roshar AU

Another Secret by aluminumoxynitride. Rated General, 5000 words, post-RoW. Mistborn era 1 and 2 spoilers. Summary: A mystery presents itself, a trap is laid, and Renarin and Rlain are in way over their heads. Luckily, they're in way over their heads together.

Arranged Marriage AU

two tunes are playing by am_fae. Rated Mature, 5000 words, set in WoK. Summary: During the War of Reckoning, Renarin is sent to marry one of the Parshendi as part of a peace treaty.

Modern Fae AU

Convergence by Truthwatcher_Vez. Rated Teen, 5000 words, post-RoW. Summary: A modern-day Renarin needs a new outfit to attend a fancy party. The simple errand sets him on a collision course with the supernatural world.

Future Roshar AU

The Final Ten Days by aluminumoxynitride. Rated Mature, 34,000 words, post-RoW. Set immediately after the events of RoW. Summary: Renarin has ten days. Ten days to understand who he is, what he is, and what he can do...Ten days to face the terrifying and wonderful storm he feels whenever Rlain looks at him.

Distant Future Roshar AU

SIlverlight by Truthwatcher_Vez. Rated General, 600 words, post-RoW. Set ten years in the future, spoilers for wider Cosmere. Summary: Renarin and Rlain prepare for an evening out. Way out.

Rlain and Szeth interact AU

Regrowth by BlindRadiant. Rated General, 1,000 words, RoW spoilers. Set vaguely in RoW era. Summary: Rlain takes some battle-shocked soldiers out to one of Urithiru's gardens for some healing.

Modern Beach AU

From the Depths of the Sea by the_pathetic_in_empathetic. Rated General, 2000 words, no spoilers. Featuring nonbinary mer-Rlain! Summary: Renarin meets a mysterious creature at the ocean. Feelings ensue.

#Rlain First Rhythm #rlain stormlight #stormlight fanfic #fic rec #not my fic #fanfic friday #rlain #ask answered

[gal-palanaeum]

All’s Fair in Games of Love and War by Macro_Scenery

Rated Teen, 1500 words, Lyn/Laran The Windrunners and Lightweavers are participating in a wargames version of Hide-and-Seek. Lyn's made a bet that she can survive longer than Laran, but what happens when they confront each other during the game?

Lyn looked out at the shattered plains from above. In the distance the Oathgate stood with a camp of soldiers watching over their affair. A horn blared over the town shaking Lyn out of her brief rest. She decreased the lashing from the ceiling and floated down to the ground. It had nearly been thirty minutes and Lyn had not been eliminated yet. She smirked knowing that it would annoy Laran. Landing on the ground, Lyn scanned for any anomalies. If there were any enemy Lightweavers, they would be hiding behind illusions looking for an opportunity to tag her out. Lyn smirked at the ridiculousness of the situation: a group of knights radiant playing an Herdazian children’s game, Hide-and-Seek.

When Dalinar Kholin had asked for suggestions on preparing against the Fused, Lopen had suggested this wargame. He had excitedly explained to Lyn how he had bested his cousins as the “one-armed shadow!” While his antics were certainly… interesting, the concept of a Hide-and-Seek war game between the Windrunners and Lightweavers was beneficial. Since the battle of Thaylen Field when the Masked Ones had attempted to steal the King’s Drop, the lack of knowledge on how to fight surgebinders was apparent.

There! To Lyn’s left she noticed a building that did match. Before the game had started, she scouted the constructed town. While it was on a large plateau, it resembled a typical small Alethkar town. The stonewards who constructed it took effort to make sure even the insides of the buildings had furniture. Lyn’s innate sense of space clued her in that the building to her left was bigger than before. The wall stretched out further on the side closest to her, large enough that a person could stand inside the illusion.

Lyn quickly lashed herself to a building across the street, her body quickly changing orientation. A hand jumped out of the wall as she began to fall towards the open door, barely missing her. Looking behind her she saw the illusion disappear in a puff of stormlight revealing a short woman who was chasing after her. Using another lashing she quickly changed directions and evaded the lightweaver.

***

Lyn breathed in stormlight to combat her panting. She had evaded the lightweaver and was now walking into one of the larger buildings. Scanning the room she saw no anomalies that tipped her off, but she kept her senses on edge. Which tipped her off that there was someone behind her. She leaped forward spinning around to see who was chasing her now. A laugh echoed across the room from a tall woman in a Kholin blue uniform. “Laran!” Lyn cursed.

“I got you pretty good! You looked just like one of the ten fools,” Laran giggled. “I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long.”

“Well I did it just to spite you,” Lyn responded, “I wanted to see how you would react when someone put you in your place.”

Laran crossed her thin arms and made a sly face, “Really? Well I’d say you're doing a terrible job right now considering that if I were one of the Masked Ones you would be dead.” Lyn stepped closer to Laran raising her shoulders up to stand at her full height.

“Well I evaded three of the enemies and have survived this long,” she said while making exaggerated and mocking gestures, “I am going to survive longer than you and relish in the violet wine you’ll have to buy me.”

Laran mock gasped, “A violet wine! Oh my… I suppose I’ll have to carry you back to your room after you pass out from a drop.” Lyn smirked a bit at that thought. Laran carrying Lyn back to her room. If that happened she would have to make it as annoying as possible. Maybe she would barf all over Laran’s clothes or sing nursery rhymes loudly as possible. But in Lyn’s imagination when they got to her room what would happen next? Would Laran even put up with her antics? And if she did, where would that leave them… together in Lyn’s room?

Keep reading

#femslash february #wlw cosmere #cosmere femslash fic #cosmere fanfic #lyn stormlight #laran stormlight #lyn x laran #lyn/laran #oathbringer

[critical-emery]

a non-comprehensive list of reasons i think the stormlight archive would be better animated than live action:

the spren. any of them but especially seeing into shadesmar

lashings, and the way a trained user of those surges moves when lashing

lightweaving, especially shallan's whole "walk thru a puff of stormlight like it's perfume"

there's literally a built in reason for huge anime swords why would you not animate the anime swords

the listeners would look much cooler animated and it'd be easier to keep consistency in design once the fused show up

high storms, would be much cooler

so would ever storms

i already mentioned shadesmar but. shadesmar

pattern especially

the chasmfiend scene! that or make them and the great shells actual puppets so the actors aren't just looking at green screen

dalinar's ass

soul casting

the battle of thaylen field

the unmade in general

it'd be easier to make the character designs accurate to Sanderson's vision by using voice actors and animation

lift and wyndle

corrupted spren

nightblood would just be so fuckin badass in an animated setting

the clothes of the fused

urithiru, and the way it looks Wrong in the beginning

did i mention the big anime swords

lasting integrity

actually creating a stark difference between most of the human countries and Shinovar, without Green screens

Navani's experiments with light

the pursuer!!!!

making odium look scarier

advanced soulcasters (not Radiant Soulcasters, the deteriorated ones)

The stark changes in eye colour would be so much more satisfying in animation

#the cosmere #the stormlight archive #the stormlight archive spoilers #stormlight spoilers #animation #twok

[koravelliumavast]

Maggie please give me headcanons ideas theories memes anything kdjsks i nees help i need stormlight archive stuff with the brainrot please

Just saying something bad is going to happen in stormlight 5 isn’t enough???

Uhhhh something something Adolin and Maya. I want to see her restored to not being a deadeye but not being a full spren either. Like enough that she can come as a Shardblade instantly but Adolin doesn’t have the full range of Edgedancer abilities that he would get.

On Adolin I think that in the timeskip him and Shallan will have kids. We saw it in the hope of elantris and again with Steris and Wax. Brandon likes it when couples have kids. Plus I think it’ll be interesting to see the different hair colors and whatnot.

Also on that note I feel that Adolin would be a great parent as his weren’t the best. Especially for Renarin. And since his parents weren’t the best parents and Shallans are dead he’s probably end up going to Hesina for parental advice. I think she’d be quite excited to help him out.

Also Kaladin and Aesudan are related through Hesina and I want to know more on that. (One of her parents is a lighteyes or something?)

Additionally. I think that Szeth and Kaladins road trip is going to get cut short by the 10 days timeline thing. I keep going back and forth on this. With all that there is that we know will happen in stormlight 5, will the book just be occurring within those 10 days? Because with the lost metal that was like less than 48 hours. But like idk it’ll make the relationship feel very rushed.

Also I think Dalinar is going to lose the contest of champions thingy. There’s no good ways of putting it.

Renarin!!! I love him so much. I really hope that he gets more povs in kowt. I’d love to see more inside his brain. The little bit in Oathbringer during the battle of Thaylen field wasn’t enough for me. Because hes like way too relatable it’s almost scary.

I just want aspec Kaladin confirmed because at this point it’s driving me insane. Hes gotta be on the aroace spectrum. Because there is ZERO explanation for all that he’s got going on.

It would be really super cool if we saw some more worldhoppers too. Maybe Khriss and Nazh(?) and also maybe Kelsier(???) especially after the kowt prologue absolutely.

I think this book is going to have more with the Heralds too. Idk what or why but I think so. I actually really REALLY want to know about Chana (the only herald we haven’t seen yet.) Mostly because of the Chana is Shallans mom theory. I love that one and also it’s been like triple(?) RAFO’d now so… hmmmmm

Dustbringer Moash!!! There’s just something about that that makes me go insane and someone somewhere had like a great theory about that and also just dustbringers in general because we haven’t really seen much of them but I dont know where that theory is right now or anything.

I hope we see Azure again. Specifically with Vasher. Some point they both see Szeth wielding Nightblood and they both go like Woah woah woah holy shit no dude. How are you not dead? And Szeth goes oh I’ve already died once so…

Speaking of Szeth. My beloved white boy Szeth. Idk if he’s still wearing white or not but if he is give him some color to his wardrobe. He deserves it. Also I think this death rattle is talking about him and going back to Shinovar because his house was kind of by the ocean and the everstorm most likely destroyed Shinovar as they’re not used to highstorms being that powerful and then it came from the other direction and yeah.

Also it would be super cool for Shallan to reach another ideal. I’d love to see what the shardplate made out of creationspren looks like.

#asks #Mina is this enough for your stormlight brainrotted brain #long post #stormlight thoughts #jewishdainix #mina :)

[fangirlamongstotherthings]

Screaming, crying, throwing up over the battle of thaylen city

#oathbringer #cosmere #brandon sanderson #stormlight archive #screaming over the you cannot have my pain scene #my posts

[mended-bunny]

Me reading as Jasnah fights at The Battle of Thaylen Field

#jasnah kholin #stormlight #stormlight archive #brandon sanderson #Gay Gay Gay I'm so Gay

[cosmerelists]

Five Questions I I Have about the Cosmere that I'm Too Afraid to Ask

Well, except that I suppose I am asking them, right now. These questions haunt me specifically because I think they have answers and that I should know what they are.

1. What Are Highspren the Manifestation Of?

This one I will sincerely accept an answer for, if anybody (or everybody?) knows. Like, rainspren are rain and honorspren are honor and liespren are lies. I get all that. Are highspren, like...the concept of highness? Like being high in the air? Is that something that gets anthropomorphized? I've read the Coppermind page a bunch of times and it feels like it doesn't specifically say.

What are they??

2. How do the bridges work?

You can try to explain this to me if you'd like but I don't think I'll get it because, well, this one is probably down to my difficulty in picturing things like this. But I just don't understand how the manual bridges in Sadeas' army actually worked. Like, they are pushed across the gap, right? So they have to long enough that they don't just tip in halfway across. Are they just like triple the size of every gap? Also, when they get placed side to side so that a line of horses can run across them--wouldn't they have to be like right against each other so there aren't gaps? How do you do that if you have people holding them on both sides? Can you really push them together if they're that long and most of it is on the other side of the gap already? I just have never been able to picture it, even a little.

3. DO we know what caused the Recreance?

In one of my other posts I expressed a hope that we would learn what caused the Recreance, and several people commented that we knew already [SPOILERS]: that it was because the Radiants learned that their powers destroyed their last planet so they all gave up their oaths. But is that really...it? I don't mean to downplay the destruction of a planet but, like, the current Radiants know that too and none of them seemed even slightly tempted to give up their powers. I just feel like there must be more to it than that...right? Some other, more terrible secret? But is this just me missing the point?

4. Where does the joke about Szeth being good at ice skating come from??

This one drives me nuts because I'm sure I should know. I assume it's something from the Battle of Thaylen City when he was with Lift, but the Coppermind article doesn't say a whole lot about his part in that fight. And I just don't remember. And I'm too lazy to look it up. Please somebody save me.

5. Are there...holidays in the Cosmere?

This is one that's been in the back of my mind for a while. Like...I have no idea what the yearly holidays are on Roshar, or Scadrial, or really any of the planets. I'm not clear if people celebrate their birthdays with a party or go out to dinner on their wedding anniversaries or celebrate the new year. I guess maybe because the books are always taking place in crises? So there's no time for Kaladin to go shopping for a midwinter crab-turkey or whatever? Or for Vin to be buying balloons for Elend's big day? But seriously--do you folks know of any holidays that characters are said to celebrate in times of not-crisis?

#cosmere #cosmerelists #stormlight archive #stormlight archive spoilers #I guess?

[amemoryofwot]

Oathbringer: Final thoughts

Brando’s strength remains his ability to wrap up a novel but my god I still don’t think it needed to take us all 1100 pages to get there. This came in a little under WoR for me, for a few reasons. I was not particularly gripped by TWoK so WoR was a shocking surprise (and I don’t think any twist in Oathbringer matched Shallan summoning Pattern against Tyln). As well, I can appreciate some of this novel was supposed to be frustration over the Radiants’ stagnation in Urithiru but it didn’t make it that interesting to read. I still have my issues with the flashback structure, as some of his choices of when to change perspective are really jarring and ruins the flow, but also I feel like as we get further along with the characters we know more about them so it becomes less relevant. Much of Dalinar’s warmongering has already been hinted at if not outright spoken of by other characters: most of TWoK was him combating hypocrisy charges, really. It also lends to another critique of Brando’s writing I have where he keeps ruminating on “traumas” without much like, emotional depth? Like I wanted the characters to be pushed further, I thought what Dalinar did was going to be way worse, not that burning a whole city wasn’t horrific but how he accidentally killed his wife, how even his alcoholism was just sort of us being told over and over again that he was trying to find something to drink, it fell a little flat. The connection came when Renarin snuck him a bottle, you know? I just don’t feel like these characters INTERACT with each other sometimes even when they’re in the same scene.

Anyways I don’t mean to be TOO critical as I did enjoy it. The Battle of Thaylen city was incredible. The shifting identities of Shallan were so well done and I’m glad there was some movement made, but that the conversation with Wit didn’t necessarily tie everything up. More Jasnah was just. Incredible. I enjoyed seeing Rysn again and I have Dawnshard ready to go. Fabrials are a really interesting cross between sci-fi and magic which I really enjoy and it seems like they will be expanded on. The unmade are very cool. A lot of questions from WoR remain unanswered which I am a tiny bit annoyed about, but that is reason to keep reading obvs. I’m a little apprehensive about his ability to tackle some of the themes he’s starting to get at, like the colonizer/colonized dynamic worries me here but there’s really not a lot of concrete information in universe yet so holding onto that until we know more.

#stormlight first timer #Stormlight spoilers