We’re centered on a scene where Jasnah confronts the invaders. A giant has smashed a breach in the city wall, and Jasnah is called upon to restore it.
After dispatching several invaders with her Shardblade sword, she covers the gap with a brassy wall of magical metal. It’s a very visual scene, in which I saw a lot of possibilities for good images. (From: Michael Whelan)
Super hyped!!! Ready to change the desktop image!
Literally had a chill run up my spine when I saw this! JASNAH IS LIFE! JASNAH IS EVERYTHING!!!!
this better mean we’re gonna get jasnah sweeping into dalinar’s room with an armful of history books and thumping them all down on his desk like “THESE ARE MY RECOMMENDATIONS, WITH NOTATIONS, READ THEM”
give me history nerds niece and uncle nerding out together I will pay you 15 emerald broams
Dalinar:wow Navani, this book Jasnah lent me is so interesting! I think its my new favourite!
Navani: Its an allegory for atheism
Dalinar:MOTHERFU
I’d also like to see Dalinar andLift taking lessons together
Dalinar: I’m not sure I’m spelling this conjugation correctly, would you check it?
Lift, scratching an barely legible “Yaezir’s storming arsecheeks” on her desk with a corner of Wyndle: you should spell your starvin’ menu more correct, your lunch was boring again today
Navani, her hand to temple: You’re fine, Dalinar, dear. Lift, it’s not even nine-o-clock
In the Arcanum Unbounded, it says that a Rosharan foot is longer than cosmere standard. How does that compare to an Earth foot?
Brandon Sanderson: Longer.
Kaladin is almost seven feet tall, by our measurements.
We’ve got a height comparison, Shallan is about six feet tall.
She thinks she’s short. Compared to us, she’d be on the taller end. That’s why if you notice people from around the cosmere that show up, they’re often mentioned as short. Not Hoid, who’s able to use magical means to change how he’s perceived, but someone like Felt, and stuff like that.
I just realized that Moash and Kaladin’s roles killing Elhokar was just a variation of that crappy superhero trope where the “hero” slaughters all the henchmen (who for all we know just got pulled into the situation due to unfortunate life circumstances) to get to the villain, who purposely and willfully caused extreme harm to many people, only for the hero to spare them out of “mercy”
For some reason, massive collateral damage is excusable if the people who died weren’t narratively important. But killing someone who is directly responsible for the suffering of others is crossing a line
Up until this point, Kaladin definitely has a lot more blood on his hands than Moash, from his time as a Radiant and as a soldier, but his refusal to kill this one Narratively significant character is what makes him good and Moash bad
Kaladin reached out. His mother let him take the little boy, hold him in hands that seemed too rough to be touching such soft skin. Kaladin trembled, then pulled the child tight against him. Memories of this place had not broken him, and seeing his parents had not overwhelmed him, but this … He could not stop the tears. He felt like a fool. It wasn’t as if this changed anything—Bridge Four were his brothers now, as close to him as any blood relative. And yet he wept. “What’s his name?” “Oroden.” “Child of peace,” Kaladin whispered. “A good name. A very good name.”
“Renarin?” Dalinar said, trying to work out the name. He hadn’t picked that. “Rekher … no, Re …” “Re,” Evi said. “From my language. Nar, after his father. In, to be born unto.” Stormfather, that was a butchering of the language. Dalinar fumbled, trying to work through it. Nar meant “like unto.” “What does ‘Re’ mean in your language?” Dalinar asked, scratching his face. “It has no meaning,” Evi said. “It is simply the name. It means our son’s name, or him.” Dalinar groaned softly. So the child’s name was “Like one who was born unto himself.” Delightful.
“His name, Brightlord?” asked Ishal, an aged ardent from the Devotary of Purity. “I would burn the proper glyphwards, if it pleases you.” “Name …” Dalinar said. “Adoda.” Light. He glanced toward Evi, who nodded in agreement. “Without a suffix, my lord? Adodan? Adodal?” “Lin,” Dalinar whispered. Born unto. “Adolin.” A good name, traditional, full of meaning.
[id: text from oathbringer that reads “‘Freedom’ is a strange word, Sah,” Kaladin said softly, settling down. “These last few months, I’ve probably been more ‘free’ than at any time since my childhood. You want to know what I did with it? I stayed in the same place, serving another highlord. I wonder if men who use cords to bind are fools, since tradition, society, and momentum are going to tie us all down anyway.” end id]
how sick would it have been of kaladin became truly disillusioned w alethi monarchy and defected in oathbringer
we would not need to lose syl. as long as kaladin felt that he was acting with honor and striving to protect, he would not be considered to be breaking his oath. oaths are subjective to the radiant’s view on morality. he could easily decide the best way to protect people is to stop serving oppressive structures.
by the end of oathbringer, dalinar rejecting odium and moash embracing him is obviously supposed to be a parallel, but moash and dalinar’s pain is not equal. dalinar’s pain comes from remorse for horrible things that he’s done and people he’s killed, and for the most part, moash’s is pain that has been inflicted on him by others, the pain of oppression and injustice and grief and slavery. he’s made one choice by the end of oathbringer that gives him the pain of remorse (betraying kaladin) but everything else that causes him pain is not like because of his actions that he could have prevented. dalinar choosing not to give up his pain is powerful because he’s the cause of his pain and so he can’t let it go bc to let it go would be to deny his culpability in the horrors he’s committed. but moash choosing to give up his pain isn’t like the equal opposite choice. he didn’t cause his pain, and choosing to give it up doesn’t come with the attachment that that pain is his fault and it’s his obligation to bear it to make himself a better person, and choosing to give it up doesn’t make him automatically worse than dalinar etc
GOD the end of oathbringer was literally so powerful, and i can’t believe row starts and dalinar has done literally nothing by way of reparations and has suffered no consequences from telling the world he’s a war criminal who killed his own wife
Returning to the world of Roshar, in anticipation for the release of The Rhythm of War, the fourth book of The Stormlight Archive. Navani & Jasnah Kholin.
Data point 1: The Oathpact, an agreement between Honour, Cultivation, and Odium that controlled how they fought has been almost completely destroyed.
This is an example of the “Sealed Evil in a Can” trope, which is an interesting story structure because it takes a battle that has happened before and says “yes, we don’t have all the weapons we used to win before, but this time some other things are different and we have some new weapons/people so we may be able to win permanently this time.” (see Korra season two or the first Mistborn trilogy).
Data point 2: The only real weapon that the Stormlight crew have now that they didn’t have four thousand years ago is more advanced technology. Taln even says (in reaction to it the four thousand year gap between desolations), “What a gift you gave them! Time to recover, for once, between Desolations. Time to progress. They never had this chance before.”
Data point 3: In both the way of kingsandoathbringer it is specifically and deliberately stated that whilst the ancients had many more surgebinders and a few powerful devices thanks to spren, by and large modern Rosharian fabrial technology is much, muchbetter
Data point 4: In Mistborn era two we see southern Scadrians with Feruchemy based technology and with those weird world hoppers we saw in secret histories it’s seems clear that the future of magic in the cosmere is going to be very much based around devices that manipulate investiture. (This is arguably symbolic of the industrial revolution and a shift from feudalism to capitalism) The Rosharian equivalent to this is fabrials.
Conclusion: the future of Roshar, both in the war against Odium and future contact with other shardworlds, rests upon Navani Kholin’s shoulders.
I’m basically imagining Arc 2!Gavinor as Batman with superpowers. He’s got some serious childhood trauma. Aseudan being under the influence of the Unmade and god knows what exactly she did to Gavinor during that period. Then Elhokar being killed while holding Gavinor. The kid is a prime candidate to become a Radiant. Probably a Windrunner (like this post suggest).
Then Arc 2!Oroden will be Superman without superpowers. Yeah, there’s been the Everstorm but if Lirin and Hesina go to the Urithiru then he’ll probably be relatively safe. He’ll have two loving parents to raise him, plus Kaladin and Bridge 4. It’d be interesting to be the brother of Kaladin freaking Stormblessed with no prospect of becoming a Radiant yourself.
Gavinor will be way more serious, no nonsense, and soldier-like. Wanting to reclaim his throne and bring honor to his father’s memory. While Oroden will be more happy, jovial, and hopeful because of how Hesina raised him. They’ll probably be friends because of their admiration for Kaladin. They’ll probably fight a lot but they’re still rockbuds.
Anyway, Nightblood is obviously a preteen edgelord who wants to get out there and make a change, but who has no idea how the world actually works, and Szeth is his babysitter whose only qualification is that technically he’s an adult and therefore should know how to handle responsibilities, but even that’s shaky as hell.
