#there are sweet moments of shallan and her brothers

[knightsgaydiant]

me: it’s great that shallan has hoid in her life, he’s like the older brother she never had

shallan’s four actual older brothers: exCUSE me????

me: y’all don’t count

[mxlxdroit]

i finished oathbringer!

yay! *confetti*

i can now unblock the oathbringer tag! woohoo!

it took me a month and a half to finish this book, all 1200-odd pages of it, and unfortunately, i’ve gotten a bit of book exhaustion. i enjoyed reading it, but it’s like reading a long trilogy of books in a very short amount of time, so i’m probably going to wait a while before tackling another cosmere book so i can get a breather and read some other stuff.

first off, i liked this book a lot! so much happened i’m not gonna go back and recap too many specific points right now, but there are a few things that i think were particularly important.

TL;DR oathbringer was good and had a lot of cute and funny stuff but it dragged a bit and got a bit too heavy for me a few times. i’m now shakadolin trash, Dalinar’s like fifty and he finally storming learned how to read, Lopen and his spren flipped off the Stormfather, and there are lots of good messages about agency and responsibility. oh, and lots of people stabbing each other

thematically, a lot of oathbringer is about choosing to take responsibility for your actions (or not. looking at you, Moash). this is most clear in Dalinar’s case, as his main character development is confronting the evil he did in his past, including killing his wife and burning thousands of people to death along with her. he has to admit what he did and take responsibility for it within himself in order to be able to resist Odium (speaking of which, What Is Up with Cultivation? i feel like i know so little about her. since Honor and Odium have spren and surges and all that jazz does Cultivation have them, too? D: i don’t know). Adolin has to admit to killing Sadeas, Venli has to realize that bringing back the Fused was a bad call, and the entire human race have to figure out what to do when they learn that they are the Voidbringers and invaded Roshar (i’m sure this is going to be a prominent theme in Stormlight 4, because it’s a huge deal and they barely talked about it). Not only do the characters have to confront their pasts and the truths there, however unpleasant, they have to decide what to do next. the story doesn’t end with a big reveal. life goes on, and they have to decide what steps to take and what future they want. the most important step a person can take is the next, if you will. in many ways, that is what the Ideals of the Radiants are for- life sucks, so what are you going to do to make it a little less terrible? and therein lies the connection between responsibility and agency. Moash’s internal dialogue about how nothing he regrets is his fault also means that none of the good things he’ve done belong to him. he gives up ownership over his life and himself and gives away his agency. he won’t be able to make meaningful decisions about his own life because he doesn’t want to anymore. Dalinar, on the other hand, accepts all of his past as his, including the good he has done, accepting his own agency over his actions and allowing himself to use his experiences to inform his decisions in the future.

on a kind of related point, honesty also leads to forgiveness. Shallan has to forgive herself for things that weren’t her fault and find a way to acknowledge the horrors of her past without letting them consume her. she isn’t all the way there- i don’t know if she’ll ever be able to be fully comfortable in herself, but i don’t doubt that she is going to continue getting better throughout the rest of the series. Kaladin has to forgive himself for not being able to save everyone, though he’s been figuring that out since book one, so it wasn’t a big part of his story in oathbringer. Teft comes to a kind of reconciliation with himself and is able to let himself start moving forward.

overall, it’s a “forgive, but don’t forget” kind of thing. don’t deny the bad stuff you’ve done or that has been done to you, don’t blind yourself to the truth, and act accordingly, but also don’t let your past hold you back or decide that you aren’t worthy of becoming a better person. it’s some important stuff

smaller-stuff-wise, uhhhhhhhh

-the scene in hearthstone was adorable i love Kaladin’s family and Kaladin being happy and getting to see his baby brother it was such a sweet part of the book

-Dalinar and Navani had the most dramatic wedding imaginable. they’re Kholins

-Shallan and Adolin! i’m so happy with how sanderson handled their whole pseudo-love-triangle thing (although this book turned me into shameless shakadolin trash (everyone has a crush on kaladin stormblessed 2kOathbringer) so that’s a thing and also since Veil isn’t gone i don’t think Shallan’s whole ‘wow Kaladin’s hot’ thing is gonna be totally gone) and their wedding was sweet

-Elhokar. wow. i didn’t see that one coming AT ALL and it’s really sad! i’m glad Gavinor’s okay though. a+++++ job to Skar and Drehy and Shallan’s guardsmen for remembering to keep him safe

-i love Wit. he’s fantastic. he’s obviously kind of an asshole but some of his scenes (the ones with Shallan and the epilogue) show that he can be very kind “Sadeas counts twice” yep pretty much. also we got two new names for him? and he bonded a Cryptic. this man

-Lopen flipping the Stormfather off... perfect

-Shallan recreating an entire play that she saw as a child... and doing it again later... i could imagine it so vividly and it was beautiful

-Kaladin’s suffering is just... never going to end. branderson just enjoys making him sad all the time and i resent that because he’s my favorite character in SA

-Venli is going to save the listeners and i’m so ready for it. it’s going to be a long, tough journey but i believe in her she’s so strong

-hmmmmmm interesting that branderson was like “HERE’S A GAY CHARACTER AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH” when a bunch of his characters are written (even if it’s an accident) to be Bisexual(tm)/Polysexual(tm)

-Lift and Szeth are a good team. i’m gonna draw him ice-skating at some point

-Adolin, Kaladin, AND Jasnah insulting Amaram... good... also Jasnah marrying Amaram is a terrible thought. both of them would be miserable even if Amaram wasn’t openly working for Odium. also is Jasnah supposed to be under the ace/aro umbrella or is she allo but not interested?

-people have been calling Jasnah a queen for ages and now look at what happened! long live queen Jasnah she is one of the most qualified leaders alethkar has ever had or will ever have

-i like Nightblood a lot. wanna destroy some evil today?

-Kaladin picking up a rock at the end of the battle :’)

-Rock firing a shardbow was surprising. i found the parts he narrated interesting because he knows a lot more than he lets on. i’m excited to see more from him in SA 4

-some of the heralds still think ishar is sane but he is NOT

-Moash straight-up stabbed a Herald! he takes the cake from Kelsier. punching gods is no longer enough

-sanderson is making Kaladin’s depression more explicit and i think he’s doing a good job. knowing that his parents are alive and safe helps, and being around people he loves helps, and having a purpose and path in life is really important for him, but his depression is still there, just like Teft’s addiction is still there, and Dalinar’s tendency towards alcoholism is still there, and Shallan’s tendency to repress trauma is still there. he still gets depressed during the Weepings and when he is forced to question the ideals that he has chosen to follow, and that’s very realistic, which is good

-DALINAR IS LEARNING TO READ! FINALLY

-and generally gender roles getting smashed is good. Lyn and Malata and Shallan and Jasnah and the other female Windrunner scouts all fighting and Dalinar learning to read and even little things like sanderson letting Kaladin cry over his baby brother were wonderful to read

-also everyone’s gotta stop making fun of Renarin for being a scholar and start paying attention to stuff instead

-Evi. Evi. Evi.

-Adolin and Shallan being the PDA couple of this series and disturbing the Good Alethis around them

my main criticism of oathbringer overall is that it was really heavy compared to the rest of the stormlight archive. the battle scenes were REALLY LONG and full of lots of main characters getting stabbed, and the philosophical weight of the decisions they all have to make is just getting heavier and heavier. there are definitely funny moments, especially in bridge four sections and a lot of the character interactions in non-conflict scenes. and every bird being a chicken. and the boots thing. how many pairs has kaladin lost now? anyways, almost every scene felt like it existed to serve a specific purpose and move the plot along, which is part of why i got book fatigue. there weren’t enough breathers, which usually isn’t an issue in sanderson’s pacing, so i’d assume that it won’t be a big issue going forwards? maybe it’s just me trying to leach as much meaning from every sentence as i can and if i just relaxed and enjoyed the book then it wouldn’t be so exhausting

also, this post (btw thanks op that’s a great summary) says that the stormlight archive (and i think by extension the cosmere as a whole) is anti-grimdark. while i mostly agree, i think some of the moral relativism and “you’ve been accidentally evil the entire time!”s in oathbringer have leaned it a little more towards (sometimes gratuitous (looking at u, mr. stormblessed, u, ms. lightweaver, and in this book, especially u, mr. dad kholin)) angst, which is another reason for the book fatigue. it’s not unnecessary, and it leads to character and plot development, but it got to be too much for me sometimes. then again, i’m a teenager and these books are written for adults, so maybe that’s a factor- moral relativism might be hitting a bit too close to home for me

ANYWAYS! i’ll probably write some more, smaller posts about OB but this is what i have for now! cfsbf, y’all

[sterisladrian]

Raoden, Vin, Shallan, Elend!

Raoden: what was the first book you read in the cosmere?

Mistborn! The beginning of my long descent into fandom.

Vin: what is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you?

So I’m not sure that this is THE absolute funniest moment of my life. But it was the funniest thing I could think of.

Also I’m pretty sure I’ve told this story in some form on Tumblr before, so bear with me here if I have.

When I was in high school, I was cast as Audrey (the person, not the evil plant) in the musical Little Shop of Horrors. Now, if you’re not familiar with the show, basically there’s a dentist who’s a pretty terrible guy, and at one point during the show, he slaps Audrey. It’s a very shocking scene, and very pivotal to the show, so we had to get the stage slap exactly right. Consequently, we practiced it quite a bit. 

So, one day, we’re standing backstage during rehearsal (this was about a month before opening) and we’re practicing the slap. There’s a different scene happening on the stage, so our director and most of the rest of the cast was elsewhere, aside from a few members of our tech crew, who were also backstage.

Now, in this particular production, the role of the dentist was played by the biggest sweetheart in the drama program, who for the purposes of my story I’ll call A. A wouldn’t hurt a fly. He didn’t have a malicious bone in his body.

A and I have practiced the slap multiple times at this point, but for some reason, that day just wasn’t going well. We couldn’t seem to get in sync. (Quick ref for non-theater folks - stage slap involves two things: slapper has to move the hand convincingly toward the face, but not actually make contact; the victim has to produce the noise of the slap and react accordingly in time with the person doing the slapping.) On about the fourth try, A pulls his hand back, gets ready to do the slap as we’ve staged it… and then manages to move his arm a little farther than he meant to and glancingly hits me across the bridge of the nose. 

It was NOT a full-on slap to the face. In fact, it really didn’t hurt that badly, mostly stung, but because he hit my nose, it made my eyes water. So it looked like I was crying. This and the sound of the slap immediately brought a couple of the techs running. 

The minute A’s hand made contact with my face, he freaked out. Being the wonderfully sweet person he was, he was absolutely mortified at having actually hit me.

So he’s freaking out, the techs are freaking out, and I’m standing there trying to reassure everyone “No, really, I’m fine!” while I look like I’m crying buckets, and all the while there’s a scene happening on stage. Until, after a moment, it gets quiet. Too quiet. 

And then I hear a shout from the back of the theatre.

“A DID WHAT TO LEAH?!”

Unbeknownst to me, as I had been unable to see through the tears, one of the techies backstage had disappeared to go find our director and tell her what had happened. So, because she’s a drama teacher, she halts the action on stage, storms backstage, and demands to know what has happened. Meanwhile, poor A is almost in tears himself because he’s so sorry about having hurt me and he’s trying to explain to our furious drama teacher what happened and I’m trying to defend him and insist that I’m fine all while STILL CRYING. And meanwhile, the techies are circling, trying to figure out the extent of my injury. 

And the actors on stage, who have no idea what’s going on, eventually get drawn back there too because of course they do. 

Long story short, it took me probably a good ten minutes to make the rounds and convince everyone that I was REALLY FINE and no, I did not need medical attention, and that it didn’t even seem like it was going to bruise (it didn’t) and convince A that it was all going to be okay. He still regularly apologized to me every week or so for the rest of the production, and it became a running joke amongst the cast. 

Basically, high school theater is a circus, and some interesting things happen.

Shallan: who do you admire/ who’s your role model? 

It depends on the context, because I have different role models for different things. For writing? I admire Ursula Le Guin hugely. Her versatility and the depth of her writing, just… man. My role model for when I’m just trying to get through the day? Peggy Carter. And there are many, many other awesome people, both fictional and real, from whom I draw inspiration as well.

Elend: what’s the one question you would ask Brandon Sanderson if he would straight up tell you the answer. 

IS RENARIN GOING TO SURVIVE?! but actually, guys, I’m seriously worried about Branderson’s track record with brothers. 

Gosh, I’m sure there’s something, but also I’m kind of just along for the ride. I wouldn’t want to spoil the experience for myself.