#Elhokar kholin

[tenebris-lux]

I really like the “slow burn” to Kaladin and Adolin’s friendship. They rankle each other like crazy and dig into each other’s pride. But they come to respect the better qualities about each other. And though it takes a while, they become allies who can trust each other with their backs, as well as someone who can call them out on BS.

It’s something Kaladin had with Moash for a while, which was also a relationship that also took a bit of work.

Also (Spoiler), I don’t think it’s coincidence that both of these figures in Kaladin’s life had seething hatred and a hunger for vengeance towards someone who wronged them and their family. But if there is a difference, Moash is avenging people already dead without any actual care about anyone else affected by his target; the fact that it would possibly work out for everyone else was an argument he could use as extra justification, but not the reason. Adolin killed his target for both past actions, and the promise directly from the guy himself of more problems to come. Elhokar is terrible, but ignorant, while Sadeas knows exactly what he’s doing and why. And while ignorance is a shit excuse, it still leaves room for improvement, room to learn….. In time, while I don’t think Elhokar would ever become “a truly good person,” I do think he had the potential to learn from his past mistakes. They are horrible events that have scarred and killed people and can’t be changed, but so were Dalinar’s. And Elhokar actually wanted to be better and worked at it. You can’t change the past. But you can try to shape your future by learning from it.

[azure-sorceress]

One thing I absolutely love about the way Sanderson wrote Gavilar is how the reader's perception of him slowly changes as the books go along.

In The Way of Kings we are under the impression Gavilar was not only a great king, but a great person as well. The highprinces respected him where they don't respect Elhokar. Dalinar talks about him as a perfect brother, Elhokar talks about him as a perfect father and even Jasnah misses him. Only Navani seems to be a little glad he's gone, but we can easily disregard that knowing she's in love with Dalinar.

This perception of him stays mostly unchanged in Words of Radiance, but by Oathbringer this picture of the perfect king and good person starts to crumble. We have confirmation in the prologue that he wanted to bring back the Desolations and that was the only reason he had made the deal with the Listeners in the first place.

In Dalinar's flashbacks we see how he used Dalinar as his war machine, how his conquest turned Dalinar into a man that could not live without a war, and didn't give him a purpose beyond that once the fighting was over. We see how Dalinar gave up everything for his brother but got very little in return. Gavilar wouldn't even let Dalinar finally relax and spend time with his first son, he had to imidiately give him a war to fight lest he find that he could live without being the Blackthorn. We see how he didn't try to help his brother when he was a drunk and let him destroy himself.

At this point it's clear that Gavilar was not really a good person, even if Dalinar doesn't see it that way. But he's not tha bad, right? Dalinar did most of these things because he wanted to, Gavilar only pointed him in the direction he wanted to.

And then we get to Rhythm of War, where we find out that Navani's imposter symdrome, that has been so prevelant in the books since the beginning is all Gavilar's fault. He made her feel she wasn't really an artifabrian, that she wasn't intellegent, made her feel like she was a cheater despite the fact that she always remained loyal to him. He made it clear he didn't care about Jasnah's feelings when it came to marrying Amaram and how he didn't see Elhokar as a fit heir. Gavilar's family all cared about him so much, and yet, here we see how little he cared about them.

By this time we're all cheering Szeth when he kills this man because he didn't deserve a single good thing that was said about him throughout the entire series. Gavilar dying was the best thing that happened to all these characters and that realization is amazing.

[nevertheless-moving]

canonically, in the cosmere, Invested individuals persist in the cognitive realm for a short time after end of life in the physical. Considering Elhokar was in the midst of swearing the First Ideal, and was highly likely to have had numerous infused gems on his person, I think it's not only plausible but probable that he survived in the cognitive realm for at least a couple minutes after his death.

all that is to say, Elhokar got to see his son be rescued by Drehy and Skar. and also got to watch Kaladin Stormblessed crawl emotionally devastated towards his unmoving body. So you know. It's not all bad.

[nightblood-autoresponder]

Design could have worked as Elhokar's spren, from Elhokar's perspective. She's so blunt, she would get him out of his head very effectively by going "so are you like, legit sad" etc at him. She would also violate the trans prime directive immediately.

[bluecalic0]

elhokar has wet cat because it fell in the bath energy

kaladin has wet cat that was forced to have a shower and fought his way through the whole horrifying ordeal and has his grumpy face on while wrapped in a fluffy towel afterwards energy

[sorchasolas]

I have a sudden overwhelming love for Elhokar like. Hes such a cringefail loser but i think. I think thats amazing?? Like yes go dude not everyone can be perfect and mature and grow and expand as mature ppl before the narrative starts!! I think ur amazing and revolutionary Elhokar <3 if anyone says otherwise theyre js used to fully matured and grown characters whos character arcs dont pertain to their emotional/mental intelligence growing and cant comprehend that everyone grows at their own speed and that also everyone irl is cringefail. Youre just insulting urself at this point

[thedarkeyedcaptain]

dear stormfather.

[highly-invested]

Elhokar googled this during the battle of Kholinar

[wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart]

there more i think about it the more i realize that one of the main themes in the series is guilt and shame and how to redeem yourself even though what you did is (subjectively or objectively) unforgiveable. how can you live with yourself knowing that what you caused can never be undone?

[bug-the-chicken-nug]

imagining elhokar surviving just to get into a weird subtle-not-so-subtle-but-deeply-toxic competition with adolin over kaladin (except neither of them openly admit this is what's going on and kaladin is just confused) is so funny

Elhokar: b-but i love my wife!

His Cryptic: mmm... why you always lyin'

Elhokar: Y-YEAH, WELL, WHAT ABOUT ADOLIN HUH?

Adolin: actually funny you should mention that given that im here to duel you so that you'll make polyamory legal. f-for the good of the people in these hard times, of course... i-it was shallan's idea. *awkwardly clears throat*

Elhokar: HE ISN'T EVEN YOUR BOYFRIEND YET.

Adolin, nervously glancing about to make sure Kaladin isn't in earshot: SHHHH

Kaladin, meanwhile, off somewhere in deep discussion with Syl: yes I KNOW everyone says horses only eat plants but i am also *certain* a horse would eat me if i just sat still long enough- where are you going- don't fly away-

[onlycosmere]

(source)

[sarahshoots1st]

Various Stormlight characters represented by random images I've found on the internet:

Kaladin:

Shallan:

Dalinar:

Adolin:

Jasnah:

Elhokar:

Eshonai:

Leshwi:

Moash:

Wit:

[duckngk]

the animatic that came from a late night talk with a friend

[nevertheless-moving]

When Kaladin had first met the king, he’d thought Elhokar lacked regality. Now, oddly, he thought Elhokar did look like a king. It wasn’t that the king had changed—the man still had his imperious features, with that overly large nose and condescending manner. The change was in Kaladin. The things he’d once associated with kingship—honor, strength of arms, nobility—had been replaced with Elhokar’s less inspiring attributes.

I think kaladin should have said this outloud in exactly this way. I think elhokar would have handled it really well.

[thekinglemingle]

I saw a really nice theory, I cant remember where or I'd link it, that the fifth ideal is about accepting yourself. With that in mind, my predictions for book 5 are.

Kaladin: I will protect myself

Shallan: I am Shallan Davar, the good and the bad

Szeth: I am capable of deciding for myself what is Justice.

What do you guys think? I can't work out what Dalinar's would be, but given that Elhokar's second idea would have been "I am a bad king" I think his fifth would be "I am the only king these people have"

[readingwitharthur]

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WERE THOSE LAST 300 PAGES BRANDON SANDERSON????????

In case you didn’t noticed i’m here to say i finally finished oathbringer, book 3 in the stormlight archive series, and my oh my do i have thoughts about it.

okay so for starters, i felt like the story dragged a bit too much, i get that that’s sanderson’s style but man i was so fricking bored for half of the book.

now the parts i really enjoyed:

. the failed attempt to save kholinar (rip elhokar, you’ll be missed)

.the whole shadesmar sequence was so well written, meeting adolin’s shardblade spren was a fun surprise

. kaladin not being able to swear the fourth ideal??? had me almost throwing my kindle out of a window, felt so bad for my boy kal 😔

. dalinar “i am unity” kholin, can i call you daddy?? because my man you made me feel things no one else did

. shallan, veil and radiant being the best dissociative identity disorder trio ever and holding off odium’s army

. renarin you’re like a son to me, if anything happened to you i would off myself immediately

final considerations: it’s a five star book? yes, and i won’t lie, sanderson continues to amaze me with this freaking book series, that being said, to rythm of war i go