Jump to content

Shardblades and eye color


Recommended Posts

Just now, Extesian said:

Ha, thanks Calderis. Yeah we complement each other pretty well on this site, I think we have similar ways of thinking, pretty similar levels of Cosmere knowledge and work well off each other. I know I’ve had a few theories that were incomplete until you corrected me, and vice versa. We upvote each other so much I’ve occasionally wondered if @Chaos will think we’re the same person, with two accounts, just upvoting each other, and he’ll bring out the Banhammer. It’s a pleasure continuing to do business with youJ

(We're totes separate people Chaos. I promise :D )

 

 

I think the only reason it hasn't happened is the fact we're on separate continents. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Extesian said:

I'm also surprised we don't have Renarin's color. But i could have missed it with my 'eyes' search. 

If your method of search is anything like theoryland's, then searching "eye" won't give any entries that contain it as part of a word, like "eyes," and vice versa. So perhaps that's what happened.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, The One Who Connects said:

If your method of search is anything like theoryland's, then searching "eye" won't give any entries that contain it as part of a word, like "eyes," and vice versa. So perhaps that's what happened.

Yeah man that's why I certainly can't guarantee it's exhaustive. I literally just searched for 'eyes' not even eye. I still think that will cover most of them, unless Brandon talks about a 'blue stare' or something. But its fair warning. 

Btw how much does theoryland search suck. Kindle searching is at least more versatile in that you can actually search for part of a word. Braize me Ashyn I'm looking forward to WoB archive. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Extesian said:

Btw how much does theoryland search suck.

It's got some drawbacks. It searches for the word you type. Exact Matches only, no word within a word like the aforementioned eye(s). It will not show entries that have the word you type as a tag.

On the upside, it isn't case sensitive. I can use "ctrl+f" to search within the search results(on PC). You can search for words or tags.

The one thing I can't figure out is how it orders entries in your search results. Older entries are generally near the top of the list, but not always. Entries from the same signing are in the same order that they are in that signing. I don't think it's alphabetical by name of signing, but I lack the brainpower to check that

Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

It's got some drawbacks. It searches for the word you type. Exact Matches only, no word within a word like the aforementioned eye(s). It will not show entries that have the word you type as a tag.

On the upside, it isn't case sensitive. I can use "ctrl+f" to search within the search results(on PC). You can search for words or tags.

The one thing I can't figure out is how it orders entries in your search results. Older entries are generally near the top of the list, but not always. Entries from the same signing are in the same order that they are in that signing. I don't think it's alphabetical by name of signing, but I lack the brainpower to check that

Yeah there are certainly tricks. I think that's the only reason I find WoBs any better than others, search tricks. If it's a noun you search singular and plural. A verb, search with -s, -ed and -ing. And then yeah search within the results page because that is much note flexible. It definitely works you just have to know how to search. I'll be happy with the Archive because it won't just be people knowing those tricks that can find things easily. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Extesian said:

Yeah man that's why I certainly can't guarantee it's exhaustive. I literally just searched for 'eyes' not even eye. I still think that will cover most of them, unless Brandon talks about a 'blue stare' or something. But its fair warning. 

Btw how much does theoryland search suck. Kindle searching is at least more versatile in that you can actually search for part of a word. Braize me Ashyn I'm looking forward to WoB archive. 

Renarin's eye color hasn't been canonized yet, so there will not be any information on them. Feather tried to drag the information out of Brandon and his team on several occasions, but never managed to get an answer, as far as I am aware. I am unsure why, I suspect it may just be for continuity issue such as to avoid changing Renarin's eye color as they did for Elhokar as they define the character more closely.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, maxal said:

Renarin's eye color hasn't been canonized yet, so there will not be any information on them. Feather tried to drag the information out of Brandon and his team on several occasions, but never managed to get an answer, as far as I am aware. I am unsure why, I suspect it may just be for continuity issue such as to avoid changing Renarin's eye color as they did for Elhokar as they define the character more closely.

Ah thanks Maxal. I was on the verge of going back and searching for every Renarin appearance so I'm glad to hear that. Personally I think the reason for silence would be to prevent exactly what we're doing. While I don't subscribe to the idea that Glys is voidish, I think Brandon does want to keep us in suspense about Reanarin and Glys and to give away renarin's eye color could spoil whatever surprise, or at least mystery, he has planned. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Extesian said:

Ah thanks Maxal. I was on the verge of going back and searching for every Renarin appearance so I'm glad to hear that. Personally I think the reason for silence would be to prevent exactly what we're doing. While I don't subscribe to the idea that Glys is voidish, I think Brandon does want to keep us in suspense about Reanarin and Glys and to give away renarin's eye color could spoil whatever surprise, or at least mystery, he has planned. 

It could be, but Brandon's answer wasn't RAFO, it merely was "I haven't canonized it yet" which means he hasn't decided yet. He is being very careful at giving away information, even meaningless information, away if he hasn't sat down and think it through. He got caught up, in the past, in answering simple questions, but having to backtrack later on as he changed his mind.

I personally wouldn't read too much into it. Had Renarin's eyes been red or any abnormal color, other characters would have commented on it. They are most probably blue, like his father and his brother (though I am pretty sure it is said Adolin's eyes were light blue while it says only blue for Dalinar, but huh could be remembering wrong) or green or any color his mother's eyes had. However, since she was blonde, they most probably were either blue or green.

I honestly do not think there is much to glimpse at from Renarin's eye color. It just hasn't come up yet in the story and up until you fished out this quote about Dalinar, I thought we didn't know for him as well. Brandon doesn't give many physical descriptive, unless required to flesh out a character. Adolin's eyes are often mentioned because his physical appearance serves a purpose: handsome blond headed blue eyed boy. It is a trope in itself and by presenting the character as such, you trigger certain responses within readers (he is one of the most often physically described character). Renarin doesn't need it as his character run on other trigger buttons. I suspect Elhokar's eyes were made to identical to his father likely to accentuate the resemblance between father and son which then serves to enhance Dalinar's favoritism towards him. 

I thus do not think Renarin's eye color not having been mentioned is meant to hide something, I think it's just not really important to his character. They only way I could see it play out is to either accentuate a potential resemblance with either his mother, his father or his uncle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's somehing very weird about Rosharan eye colors.

- Heterochromia is too common (there's a WOB that says it's common for people with one lighteyed and one darkeyed parent, which is not at all how it works on Earth).

-There are both darkeyed and lighteyed versions of some colors (green, violet)

-Some of the colors don't really match Earth ones (tan, violet, red) - there are rare violet eyes on Earth, but these are not particularly pale.

-Rosharan eye colors seem too easy to notice when you're not really close to the person, and there don't seem to be ambiguous colors or those which appear to vary based on lighting conditions, which aren't terribly rare on Earth, especially in the hazel/green/amber etc. range.

I actually think all the Rosharan lighteye colors are of magical origin and don't match anything we have on Earth. All Earth eye colors would be considered darkeyed, I think (although I don't think they have 'normal' blue eyes, at least in the Vorin nations where social status is defined by eye color - the Shin or other eastern peoples might).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

I actually think all the Rosharan lighteye colors are of magical origin and don't match anything we have on Earth. All Earth eye colors would be considered darkeyed, I think

I'm actually of the opinionthat AL Rosharan eyes are unfamiliar to us. Darkeyes are presented in book as the colors being almost indistinguishable unless the light hits them correctly. I've always imagined Darkeyes as having eyes that you have to strain to differentiate the iris and pupil. It makes it seem as though something is obscuring the iris.

Lighteyes have fainter than normal eyes, and some natural seeming colors... I think that some earth eyes, like blue and green could pass as Lighteyes, but I think that for the most part our eyes would be as foreign to them as theirs sound to us. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Calderis said:

Um, where is this mentioned? 

When is it not? The entire caste system inundates us to the repeated references. BRIGHTlord, BRIGHT lady. These arnt simply observance of customs, our noses are practically being rubbed in it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@DocHoliday The traditions and words of a religious culture, that date back to a time when eyes did actually glow.

Their just light colored eyes. Unnaturally colored yes. But we've literally seen where the "lit" eyes you speak of comes from, and it is Stormlight.

"Brightlord" and "Brightness" are titles originating prerecreance, misappropriated to people to whom it does not apply. 

Edit: my opinion obviously. 

Edited by Calderis
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/23/2017 at 2:43 AM, DocHoliday said:

When is it not? The entire caste system inundates us to the repeated references. BRIGHTlord, BRIGHT lady. These arnt simply observance of customs, our noses are practically being rubbed in it!

When nobodies eyes glow in the dark. And they can, you know, see in the dark. It'd be really hard to see in the dark if you have bioluminescent irises. The radiants I'll forgive. That's magic. And they illuminate everything around them. Stormlight might alter perception. But for ordinary people, no. Their eyes don't glow. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/22/2017 at 7:59 AM, Calderis said:

I've always imagined Darkeyes as having eyes that you have to strain to differentiate the iris and pupil. It makes it seem as though something is obscuring the iris.

On the subject of how alien Rosharan eyes are from ones on Earth, I have seen a large number of people with eyes like this, where the iris is almost indistinguishable from the pupil, sometimes even when in close quarters. It was practically the most common eye "color" during all of my high school years

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, The One Who Connects said:

On the subject of how alien Rosharan eyes are from ones on Earth, I have seen a large number of people with eyes like this, where the iris is almost indistinguishable from the pupil, sometimes even when in close quarters. It was practically the most common eye "color" during all of my high school years

Really? That's interesting... I've only met four or five people ever that had eyes that dark.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/22/2017 at 7:59 AM, Calderis said:

I'm actually of the opinionthat AL Rosharan eyes are unfamiliar to us. Darkeyes are presented in book as the colors being almost indistinguishable unless the light hits them correctly. I've always imagined Darkeyes as having eyes that you have to strain to differentiate the iris and pupil. It makes it seem as though something is obscuring the iris.

Lighteyes have fainter than normal eyes, and some natural seeming colors... I think that some earth eyes, like blue and green could pass as Lighteyes, but I think that for the most part our eyes would be as foreign to them as theirs sound to us. 

It's possible.

But eye colors in RL are often (usually?) hard to distinguish unless you're very close and often are dependent on lighting conditions. If the Rosharan genome (or at least that of the Vorin countries where eye color matters socially) lacks the palest end of the range (eg usual Northern European blue eyes*), which tend to be the most distinct, it seems very plausible to me that most could be near-indistinguishable.

*The darkeyed 'violet' color might actually be a dark blue e.g. Elizabeth Taylor in our world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was always under the impression that eye color on Roshar is no different than eye color on earth (other than the additional shades of eye color that don't occur here). Some people have blue eyes, some have brown, some have violet, etc. I took the association with lighteyes being chosen for leadership as a cultural memory of the Radients having glowing eyes of various shades, e.g. blue. Eventually "glowing blue eyes" becomes just "blue eyes." The association becomes part of the religion, and sticks. The fact that if someone bonds a blade, their eye color changes re-inforces this, but people having different color eyes was a thing before the Knights Radient, and is just part of the normal DNA of humans. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Chaos locked this topic
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...