#Way of Kings spoilers

[adarkermiserablecrow]

Dalinar rlly walked into Elhokar's room, beat his ass, terrorised the shit outta him, explained exactly how much authority Elhokar would give him, told Elhokar he loved him like a son, and ended it with 'oh btw I fucked your mom'. Truly an icon

[serial-serializednovelreader]

Dalinar’s confrontation with Eholkar at the end of WoK be like…

Eholkar: oh, uncle! Heard there was a little skirmish at the plateaus today. What was that abo—

Dalinar:

Eholkar: …

Dalinar: oh and I’m doing your mom now. You’re welcome.

[kaladinsspear]

🔥 for way of kings & words of radiance? (since those are the two that I've read haha)

(also wouldn't complain about more lokitty 👀👀👀 no pressure tho)

either way hope you have a good day/evening/insert correct time of day <3

Ohh! I actually have a really spicy opinion. I went back and forth about sharing because I don't want to get soul cast to smoke in a back alley, but this is a work of fiction, and I have seen some truly rancid takes so hopefully anyone who sees this wont hate me personally, just my bad takes. (My blog is generally not spoiler friendly, but this does not have spoilers past WoR I promise.)

Well, here goes...

Amaram is a lot more nuanced than the fandom makes him out to be

That's not to say that I agree with his actions or that he is a good man! It's just that we have other examples of characters being forgiven for similar actions, and I don't see any reason to believe his entire persona is an act. Again, I'm not defending his actions. He is a coward and a manipulator and I would probably hate him if I ever met him, I just don't think he is irredeemable or the worst example of evil in the books.

As we see with Moash in WoR, being a shardbearer is a landed title and holds significant political and physical power. As Adolin notes, you cant imprison a shardbearer, he does what he wants or you kill him. If you can.

Shards are not just glory, shards are vast and poorly checked power, and Amaram had no way of knowing that Kaladin is a main character.

I promise this is relevant, but let me switch gears here for a moment. A lot of people believe that Moash was justified in wanting to kill Elhokar. At the very minimum, most people wouldn't have been particularly angry if Moash had succeeded. As Elhokar himself points out, his sin is not wickedness, its incompetence. Incompetence that gets people killed.

One of the questions asked by WoR is how much responsibility Elhokar holds for the consequences of his incompetence, especially when he really is trying his best. Moash answers that Elhokar holds 100% responsibility for the consequences of his incompetence, and that removing Elhokar to make way for somebody more competent is justified. Moash is a fandom beloved character, even if the fandom broadly (though, not universally) disagrees with his decisions.

Amaram had no reason to believe that Kaladin would stick to his decision that he didn't want the shards, and every reason to believe that a random country foot soldier would wield that power incompetently. It was a cruel choice to make, but it was the kind of brutal logic that Jasna is praised for.

Personally, I believe that Amaram and Moash are both wrong, and Amaram was even more wrong than Moash. Elhokar had already demonstrated that his incompetence was dangerous, whereas Amaram made the choice to kill several men in order to avoid risk. As risk averse as I am, I still name Amaram a coward. My point is not to defend Amarams actions, it is to say that they are much more nuanced than a simple lust for shards, and reducing them to a lust for shards really diminishes the impact of Kaladin swearing the 3rd ideal. If you can understand Moash and Graves, you can understand Amaram, and that is what makes Kaladins decision to defend Elhokar so powerful.

You could also say that Amaram stole a second shard, but again, there is more nuance there. Amaram believed that the hidden blade belonged to a herald. He wasn't stealing it so he could have 2 blades, he was trying to get it back so he could return it to the herald it belongs to.

Trying to reignite the desolations and return the heralds was stupid, naive, and arrogant, but the fandom treats that almost as an afterthought. His scheming was ultimately ineffective because other forces were at work.

So yeah. That is my hot take. Amaram is shit, but he is vehemently hated for things that other characters are forgiven for, and the inconsistency bugs me. Also, very few people seem to acknowledge the reflection of Amaram in Moash and I wish they would.

(I am always ready to share kitty pictures! I'll make a separate post for Lokitty though, that way people can look at pretty kitty pictures without having to think about Amaram, haha)

[blindradiant]

If you could ask/bribe/convince people to read just one of your fics - not necessarily your best, not the one that you think summarizes your style, not even your favorite, but the one you want people to read the very most for whatever reason - which one would it be?

And if you feel comfortable, why that one?

I know it doesn’t necessarily have to be one of my favorites, but this one happens to be one of the ones I’m still most proud of. It’s about one of the people who was drawn into one of Taravangian’s fake hospitals where death rattles were being collected. It was inspired by the epigraph in chapter 63 of WoK.

I want people to read it because I’m very proud of how I brought things together in just over 4000 words. I incorporated as many aspects from canon as I could, and did my best to communicate the inevitability of the situation. It’s sad, it’s angsty, and there is no hope to be found. It’s an aspect of the story I wanted to see though, so I wrote it. I want people to realize how much can be possible with fanfic, I guess

[shining-dawn]

When I read the first chapter from Kaladin's POV I wasn't super thrilled and struggled to relate, but now I'm realizing he's unfortunately super relatable in the worst way possible.

[old-man-hobb]

Rereading the Way of Kings and am struck by the fact that Jasnah is already presenting as her stormlight enhanced ideal self when Shallan meets her. No wonder Shallan finds her so intimidating and the perfect Alethi ideal of a woman.

[stormblessed-crow]

This will never not be funny to me. Kaladin, honey, in a few chapters you're going to be working for him. Better get used to hearing about him.

[paintingpuff]

Illustrated my favorite scene from Way of Kings

[cubbyhole-for-flea-bee]

Macaque spent the whole season Big-Damn-Hero-ing and was NOT happy about it xD

[keets-writing-corner]

Thinking a LOT about Lucifer in the latest Hazbin episode. Idk what I was expecting but not this??

As I was watching my immediate thought was just "huh... Lucifer is kinda of weird..." but as the episode went on I realized the issue

the dude is off the chain depressed, like he says it as a joke but holy cow it is SO BAD

He's manically just creating rubber ducks cuz his daughter really like it that one time but it's empty, it's never good enough but he keeps doing it, maybe cuz he doesn't know how to pass the time otherwise.

like I get the feeling he HAS better things he SHOULD be doing than making rubber duck after rubber duck. At first I was like, "Bruh why isn't the king of hell doing anything?" aaaaand then it became clear...

The dude is disassociating so bad he can barely hold a conversation let alone remember information. He clearly WANTS to, he wants to be involved with his daughter so bad, he wants to care about the things she's doing so bad, but his depression keeps interfering. It's like he can only hear every other word and he grasps onto the ones he does hear semi-out of context. Like you can see every time he catches something that he hadn't before and he just "well shit I didn't catch that part"

and that's why he reacts so weird when people talk to him. He is struggling so bad to engage with the conversation he's only getting 50% of it

does that look like the face of a man who knows what the hell the conversation is even about??? he is STRUGGLING

like Charlie spent so long telling him about the hotel, and he STILL didn't understand what she wanted. Yeah it comes off as ditzy but literally I've been in that position where your brain just "nope, not doing this right now" and nerfs your conversation comprehension. So as someone who's BEEN in that position, to me it feels exactly like what he's dealing with. He's sorta engaged with the conversation, but only as much as his brain will allow

For example, when I'm dealing with this, this is what someone talking to me feels like this where the crossed out parts are what I missed and bold is what I catch, "Hey! You know I was thinking for dinner we could either make some chicken with rice? But if you don't feel like cooking, pasta is super easy and you love that right? What do you want to do?" you can kinda get that someone is trying to talk to you about dinner, and towards the end you get the impression that they asked something that needs your input so you can decently put 2 and 2 together and try and pass off, but crucial bits were left out, I would have no idea that either chicken or pasta is in the conversation only having heard "rice". When someone is just talking at me, I can decently pass off as being engaged but the second I'm required to participate in the conversation I'm screwed. Seem familiar? At which point I have 2 options, try to give a bullshit answer, or admit that I missed what they were saying and ask them to repeat

Lucifer, unfortunately, is trying so damn hard to hide that he's dealing with like 24/7 dissociation, so he can't admit that he's missing entire chunks of the conversation, hence his really weird replies. He does eventually get the full picture and then he and Charlie start having the real conversation

Also, the Alastor/Lucifer rivalry was hilarious but also really indicative of more of what Lucifer is dealing with

Alastor is, unfortunately, really good at picking up people's insecurities, and thanks to Charlie's description earlier and watching Lucifer clearly trying to overcompensate, he immediately picks up on the fact that Lucifer KNOWS he struggles to be a good dad (we know cuz it's cuz of the depression, hard to be engaged when your brain keeps turning off) and decides to rub salt in the wound by pretending he's been acting as a surrogate father to Charlie. Now why Alastor decided to pick a fight with the king of hell is beyond me, I do not understand Alastor (and I LIKE IT) (maybe it's cuz Alastor thinks he's hot shit and was expecting Lucifer to at least have heard of him but Lucifer just treats him like a nobody? who knows)(why would Lucifer listen to radio anyways when he can't even pay attention to a conversation it'd just be white noise)

But yeah I just was expecting someone who oozed either charisma or presence and instead I got a depressed dad who's dissociating so bad he can barely function and be present in his life. The only thing it seems he CAN do is make rubber ducks cuz his daughter really liked it that one time

Idk Lucifer is tragic to me. Whatever the full details of what heavan did to him absolutely broke him and he can't deal with it. He's aware of it, and he doesn't know how to fix it, so he tries to over compensate and sorta makes an ass out of himself but no one says or does anything cuz this guy is supposed to be THE king of hell

Suddenly it's making a lot more sense why he just rolls over and lets heaven do what it wants and even told Charlie to go in his place the start of the show. He's not in any headspace to hold a basic conversation let alone negotiate! He didn't even know who Alastor was, he's been so out of touch

idk I like him, he seems sweet, I hope Charlie brings some light back into his life. He really needs to get out of that rubber duck room

[petrowriting]

the revelation that claudia’s rebirth was such a twisted and horrible moment, with louis dragging her like she was a thing, a stranger who neither of them knew but he kept saying over and over “our daughter, our beautiful little daughter” to lestat, really solidified the way she was never the main character of her own story. she was always an accessory to some or the other of louis’ whims: his guilt, his loneliness, his conflict of being a killer, his rocky relationship with lestat. there was love there, love from both her fathers, but it was never enough. lestat saw her too much as a wretched mirror held up to his own self, and louis was always too steeped in his own feelings to care enough about hers. claudia’s story truly was the greatest tragedy in this tale, treated horribly by every man around her, even her fathers, relentlessly exploited and brutally ignored, always second and never first. the only one who loved her the way she deserved to be loved was madeleine, and the moment she truly had her, her happiness was torn from her. and just before she died, she got to see someone actually choose her in her entirety, not for what she can be but for who she is, and it still wasn’t enough. she still burned alive in the sunlight. the love was there, but it wasn’t enough to save her.

[sameboot]

Simon petrikov coping FAIL compilation

[joy-girl]

NAMI SWAAAAAAN ~ ❤️

[dottyistired]

i'm not seeing any posts about it here yet, but they solved the silas birchtree riddle on reddit and there's some pretty juicy lore! first, entering "paranoid" backwards nets this conspiracy board:

then, from the black letters in the corners of some of the pages people pieced together the code "connect the dots", backwards again, gets a whopping 12 page chapter about the ciphertology cult! it's...something.

so in summary, bill puppeted a guy's corpse, became a cult leader, seemingly married over a hundred people, mass-possessed his followers, tried to get them to build his portal. his lone dissenter was a spinster who made anti-bill chick tracts and started a fire. a waco-style shootout ensued, killing silas' already-rotting corpse a second time in a disturbingly detailed manner. at some point he made some of his followers drink the kool-aid too.

entering the lady's name, emmaline butternubbins, into the computer finally gets you the reward for solving all the riddles: hd wallpapers of various graphics from the book of bill. but frankly this is more interesting and fucked up to me.

(alt text under cut, wip)

[Image 1: A cluttered conspiracy board centered on Bill Cipher. Red string and pins connect various newspaper clippings, photos, drawings and pamphlets.]

[Image 2: A history-book style chapter page. Header "LESSER KNOWN AMERICAN CULTS."

"Have you ever heard of Orchard Lake, Kansas? Chances are you haven't. It was erased from every map, book, and historical record, and the US Government's official position on it is "stop calling us or we'll send a drone to your house." (I learned this the hard way.) But if you drive to the exact latitude and longitude of you'll see bullet casings, faded billboards, and bow ties strewn across the desert sands.

That's because Orchard Lake had another name before it was wiped off the record: BillVille.

CHAPTER 3: BillVille

The First Cult In History That Was Right

FIG A: A tumbillweced

As a historian of esoteric religions, I thought I'd discovered the strangest sects America had yct to offer (see "Chapter 3: Kevin's Gate") but that all changed when I found the following items tucked away in an old trunk in an estate sale on the out- skirts of Bootstrap, Missouri."]

[redbelles]

It's a dragon wing.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 2.01 A Son for a Son