Thank God Taravangian never found out about hemalurgy. Like, that would be ridiculously easy for him to abuse if he knew about it. And really, knowing about it is all it would take. Cause you can use it anywhere in the cosmere.
Especially since copper can steal intelligence. You just *know* he’d be out trying to recreate his Big Brain Day
im sorry but. what lmao. getting this email notif was like top ten most surreal moments of the morning can you imagine DRINKING through this book???
Update- they are trying to kill us
i really do recommend taking a look at the entire list because there are some really interesting choices here. imagine finishing your drink after the jaswit harsher chapter
I just had an idea for a Stormlight AU. Elhokar still dies in Kholinar, but it’s not Moash who kills him. Maybe it’s aesudan, maybe it’s one of the fused. But Moash ends up in Shadesmar with everyone else, because he tries to protect Kaladin or something.
speaking of themes. theres a circle in my head and on it are moash szeth and dalinar. there are assorted comparisons and juxtapositions (agency and choice in ones actions and the lack thereof, theoretically atoning for ones actions, how the narrative and/or author treats them and either condemns or absolves them). and its right next to the essay i will probably never write about jezriens honorblade as symbol (especially as like. juxtaposition of actual literal honor with the alethi value of Conquest As Honorable. like theoretically it should be a cultural symbol of the best of human nature but instead its used for atrocities by people who in one way or another didnt really have a choice and because they dont have the meta knowledge necessary to get what it is exactly. szeth and moash are just kinda similar narratively in general. same themes in play but theyre framed differently)
the Battle of Thaylen City is so wild? The Assassin in White drops out of the sky and is like, “I’m here to help.” “Go get that ruby,” says Dalinar, who is busy having a mental breakdown. Szeth dashes off on this assigned miniquest and is joined without question by a 12-year-old he’s never met, who casually zooms around like she’s wearing socks on polished hardwood. Jasnah is turning people to fire while chatting with her mother, Odium can possess humans now? or something? and Adolin is halfway through befriending his sword back to life, while Shallan creates an army out of her multiple personality disorder. What a day.
Renarin is fighting a Thunderclast while getting repeeatedly crushed and popping back up like nothing happened and Kaladin is facing a super-powered version of the very man that ruined his whole life, simultaneously keeping the Fused off of Dalinar and having his own mental breakdown about the fourth ideal.
two heralds like, are there. rysn temporarily saves the aforementioned ruby while her pet energy sucker helps kill some singers. the alethi army gets to finally beat up sadaes soldiers. teft is a radiant now. adolin literally looks at jasnah while she’s busy turning things to sand and killing people and goes, ‘oh, nvm, she’s good.’ dalinar ascends.he combines the fucking realms. like 24 hours later they crown the first female ruler of alethkar. rip the poor lady who has to write THAT chapter of a history book
Sanderson tells us in interviews and loose WoBs on Reddit that we’re supposed to be skeptical of the system that the Knights Radiant are gathering behind. He should put his money where his mouth is and have characters rebel against it. It doesn’t have to be overt—so far, every character that has criticized the system has been painted in the harshest antagonistic light. Every character that has opposed the Kholin monarchy has committed some kind of crime against humanity.
@patrickdiomedes Oooh honestly, I’d be okay with this, and, actually, I have about a modicum of faith that Sanderson could pull this off. We’ve seen him subvert fantasy timelines before (the prophecy coming true in book 2, the final duel being ten days after book 4, etc.): I’d actually really like to see the back half books focus more on human (“street-level,” if you will) plotlines dealing with the aftermath of the desolation. It’d be a strong thematic tie-in to the interludes, which set out to accomplish the same in lesser detail. I’d also rather see that than gradually build up to a crazy Avengers: Endgame style final fight where fucking Kelsier and Vasher forge Super Nightblood to kill Mega Odium and Reverse Kaladin or whatever.
racism isn’t the only reason people hate moash and not every person who hates moash is racist. literally nobody has ever seriously suggested that. but racism is a not insignificant reason why he is so much more hated in general than characters who have done comparable or worse things, especially when you consider his actions and fandom reputation pre-rhythm of war. if you read this and say “what so suddenly im racist bc i hate moash?” you’re not only stupid but also actively making it harder to have a real conversation about his character and exaggerated culture of hating him that arose with the help of, you guessed it, racism. hope that helps!
Okay girlies Sanderson crit moment. I’ve been making jokes about comparing the Stormlight characters to superheroes, but I realized that the fundamental conflict between Kaladin and Moash in Words of Radiance would be more compelling and make more narrative sense if it took place in a superhero setting. Kaladin’s “No… I can’t kill… it’s not who I am… this isn’t justice” just doesn’t work when sandwiched between his butchering hundreds of listeners and singers. He cuts through singers like it’s nothing, and he only ever feels bad about it once, in Oathbringer, and then I guess just resolves that guilt and decides to keep killing them, telling himself he’s honorable because he doesn’t kill the Fused fliers. Literally if you put them in a setting where Kaladin refused to kill, and Moash proffered the idea of killing Elhokar as their one exception, and that created a schism between them, that would be so much more compelling than what we got, which was a handwave when Kaladin brought up that he’s killed a lot of more innocent people. You could even incorporate his time as a soldier and having killed then, in a Rurouni Kenshin type “the man so good at killing, so skilled with a spear, refuses to kill again.” Instead, Kaladin’s nonviolent ethos comes up with the people in positions of power and the literal single white character in the story.
I wish Moash and Venli had gotten a chance for a conversation in ROW. Cause I don’t think there will be a good opportunity for it now, and I think they’d have some good stuff to talk about.
They’re both characters who outside forces might expect them to side with the kholins, moash as part of bridge four and venli as a knight radiant. And they’re both characters who I don’t think could ever really do that, given their past with them.
Moash is definitely stuck in very binary thinking though- he knows he doesn’t want to side with the kholins, and so he turns to odium and the fused who he sees freeing the singers. Are they perfect? Absolutely not. But he figures they’re better than the kholins in his mind, and “good” doesn’t seem like an option so he’ll take better. Venli, meanwhile, knows that Odium’s forces are not a good thing for the singers by any means, and is forging a third path of actual freedom for them. Not slaves to humans nor to odium. Moash is too caught up in hatred right now to act on any of this (due to the odium and all) but I think it could have set up great seeds for later.
This could also be used to reinforce Venli’s decision to not join the main group of Knights Radiant, when she hears Moash’s side of things, if she started to have doubts about it.
Szeth: focus on shinovar and shin culture. stone shamans and training with the honorblades. magic exposition fight scenes. why szeth’s family hold the honorblades and why they sent szeth into the world with the windrunner blade after he was made truthless. szeth bonding a spren (i hope) before he was made truthless. why szeth was made truthless and what that means to the shin. ice skating. the ecology of shinovar.
Lift: we’ll probably get a lot of her past before words of radiance for character/worldbuilding. iri and the city of shadows (rall elorim). maybe something to do with the plot after the time skip (trying to recapture oathgate cities?). the nightwatcher and cultivation in more detail. also some time skip content because there’s probably a lot there to explore.
Renarin: his chapters will probably be pretty evenly split between pre-wok, his perspective during the books (bonding glys, etc.) and the time skip. more of a character study than a plot device, plus filling in gaps from previous books. lots of adolin content. kholin family dynamics. at least one bridge 4 scene. probably also some events we’ve seen before (wor duel!!!!) with context for when he became a radiant and when he figured out that there was something wrong with his bond (also i reckon that he knew about kaladin/shallan before they revealed themselves). rlain.
Ash: lots of herald-era flashbacks. probably more focus on later desolations and post-desolation content since she might not have been born on ashyn. some braize content but not that much. herald group dynamics & politics. taln. uhh also art crimes??
Taln: early herald era. ashyn. why he became a herald. lots of braize. probably lots of fused/desolation fight scenes. he will die a lot in those. ash. probably less time skip/newer content. i guess we’ll finally know how stoneward powers actually function.
Jasnah: queen jasnah. kholin family dynamics from a different perspective. whatever her childhood madness was. her hiding her bond/soulcasting abilities. jasnah & elhokar content (please!!! they never interacted in the books). probably some research that links to the main plot. worldhopping?? who knows what’s possible at this point.
szeth bonding a spren (i hope) before he was made truthless
Hmm. If he bonded a cryptic, becoming Truthless would probably kill it right? I doubt the name is a complete coincidence.
genuinely gonna be really upsetting if there’s no redemption arc for moash, and i mean like full redemption arc, not just kyle ron “i thought really hard about my dad whom i killed forgiving me so i’m good now” or changing his mind at the last second and dying or whatever whatever, i think that’s all weak as fuck shit. genuinely want an involved back half five book arc. so many writers just can’t conceive of what that looks like, which is why they do one-and-done apologies or deathbed realizations. that spark of knowing you’re wrong is actually the first step. that’s why dalinar’s ob plot was good bc he was like ok next step!!! and row dalinar was so disappointing bc bro you went to take the next step and tripped comically on a banana peel. i think brandon could conceive of a solid arc for moash if he wanted to. and he does want to, or else [picks up a very large brick and holds it w a vague aura of menace]
A ship drawing request from my Bf of Kaladin, Shallan and Adolin from the Stormlight Archives :) I have not read the series yet myself so I really hope I did them justice! He finds such comfort in these stories and it’s characters
POV you are a young single lighteyes with a mild headache at the 6th floor clinic where the most eligible bachelor in the tower *just so happens* to work as a surgeon
(in other words: im obsessed with kal’s surgeon Look in rhythm of war)
POV you are a young single lighteyes with a mild headache at the 6th floor clinic where the most eligible bachelor in the tower *just so happens* to work as a surgeon
(in other words: im obsessed with kal’s surgeon Look in rhythm of war)
