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Chapter 106 (A Hundred Discordant Rhythms)
Icons: Offset triad of Taln, Jez, and doubled Nale.
Epigraph: I don’t get it. How are varied and intense being used as antonyms? Or at least exclusive?
Kaladin reflects on his argument with Lirin about killing to protect, and how that may be an inherent contradiction. But unbeknownst to him, Lirin is mere feet away being held hostage against Kaladin doing anythin
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Chapter 105 (Children of Passions)
Icons: Another offset triad: Jez and Chach, plus Vev twice but not mirrored. Maybe that’s Lift getting pride of place? I’m beginning to think the lack of symmetry is intentional to evoke the chaos of the current situation.
Epigraph: Are you making fun of our skin, now? Just because we humans don’t have cool crab shells doesn’t mean… yeah, who am I kidding. I’m sure we’re f
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Chapter 104 (Full of Hope)
Icons: Three, and in a different configuration than before. We have Chach, Vev, and two Nale… but the Nale icons aren’t mirrored. What’s going on?!
Epigraph: “Humans are a poem. A song.” I’mma need some more context to see where he’s going with this one.
Rlain is reprimanded for carrying water to the basement…but it’s the carrying water part that he’s doing wrong. Make the human
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Chapter 103 (The Legend You Live)
Icons: Jez and Vev=windrunners and edgedancers. Teft and Lift gonna be doin’ stuff.
Epigraph: El also thinks human tenacity appears appropriately Rosharan.
Teft is right that Kaladin does have a flair for the dramatic, but having just seen inside his head I don’t know I’d go so far as to say he’s intentionally grandstanding.
Teft, that was pretty ballsy but I don’t
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Chapter 102 (Highstorm Coming)
Icons: Jez and Chach. Either brave windrunners, or destructive highstorm.
Epigraph: This one is quotable:
Is…is this talking about the infamous “voidbinding chart” from the endpapers? Are those shapes intended to be singer faces?
Also, am I correct in assuming “this Return” to mean the current one in the story, or would these Musings on the first of the FInal Ten Days
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Chapter 101 (Undertext)
Icons: Palah. Matches the title for Learned, but I don’t have a guess about why that matters here.
Epigraph: El likes that humans think he’s scary. Big surprise there.
The Prime’s house full of furniture made me think first of that meeting of monarchs where everyone brought their own throne, and I had the facetious thought that maybe the Azish just kept all of them. Then I thou
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Chapter 100 (Watchers at the Rim)
Title: A repeat from previous books. While I recall the term and its meaning, I don’t remember at all what chapter previously bore this title so I don’t know if there’s any parallelism being set up. I assume not, and it’s just the conceptual callback.
Icons: Jez and Shash. Jez for windrunners, not sure about Shash
Epigraph: El refers to himself as a singer, so yes, Nav
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Chapter 99 (Not Bound)
Icons: Betab and Jester–caution and an offworlder. Possibly consulting with Wit via the radio, possibly just learning about wider cosmere events, or maybe Azure returns? Oh, wait. This is Jasnah’s chapter header. Betab for Elsecaller, Jester for Wit. It’s just a cast list.
Epigraph: Okay, three big things here. First, identity of El: he had his title stripped from him so he probably i
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Chapter 98 (An Unwholesome Shade)
Icons: Ishar and Shash. Coming up with a creative way to meet Ishar?
Epigraph: Musings of El. Having just gone back through the Rhythm of War notebook epigraphs from part three, the identity of El is a question at the front of my mind. Looks like we may get an answer by the end of the book. “I look forward to ruling the humans” doesn’t really sound like an Unmade necessa
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Part V start (Ketek, Epigraphs, and speculation)
Before I start in on the final section of the book, let’s take a moment to address a few things.
First, the Ketek:
That repeated “Knowledge” in the middle doesn’t quite match the form we’ve seen from past keteks, as I recall. Isn’t there usually a single non repeated word in the third line? Man, my Alethi poetic analysis is rusty.
I’m a bit surpris
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Interlude I-12 (Taravangian)
Compassionate Vargo on top, with more Vev in the icons. “Loving” is getting a bit of a workout over the past chunk of chapters.
I can understand Taravangian’s struggle to say things without outright betraying his deal with Odium, and thus invalidating Kharbranth’s protections. It must be a struggle to figure out how to thread that needle when his own mind is unreliable, especial
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Interlude I-11 (Adin)
Icons: Jez. Not sure why.
Adin is a new name. I’m not sure what nationality it fits. Oh, it’s an Alethi kid in the tower. Makes sense, it’s a shorter version or at least shares roots with Adolin. We know that Kaladin didn’t like his name because it made him sound like a lighteyes with that extra syllable in the middle, so it feels obvious in retrospect that a darkeye kid would have a s
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Interlude I-10 (Hesina)
Alright, I’m excited for Hesina to get a turn. She’s been far more in the background than Lirin and needs a bit of time in the spotlight.
Icons: Vev. Because loving is pretty much what we need from her right now.
Tomat? Where is that? Oh, it’s her hometown. I don’t think we knew its name before. And we see that her parents are both high nahn and also forceful enough personalities t
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Chapter 97 (Freedom)
Icons: Nale. This one confused me at first, but in addition to Justice, Nale is associated with Confidence. Navani’s research coming to a head and giving her a shot of self confidence along with something tangible to contribute is a good fit for that herald to head the chapter (assuming that’s where it’s going, based on the preceding notebook page.
Epigraph: So it’s both. Mishram (and t
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Navani’s Notebook Part IV
Art here.
Looking at the pictures before translating anything, I love the beauty of the scientific instruments, the musical equipment, and the spren or light being channeled through that tube. It feels like a naturalist’s notebook, and it’s wonderful.
I can’t tell if the cymatic pattern drawn at the bottom has any similarity to the ones depicted previously. I’m going to guess no, bu
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Chapter 96 (A Thousand Lies)
Icons: Vev again. Loving? Healing? Coming after the previous chapter, let’s hope it’s thematic healing for Venli.
Epigraph: Wait, what? Why are we supposed to let Ba-Ado-Mishram out? (And presumably Yelig-nar as well, or any others that are caught.) Is it out of sympathy because “trapped forever” is a fate worse than death? Or is it because that’s a bad outcome for other reasons
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Chapter 95 (What She Truly Was)
Icons: Forgot to do this part before I’d read a couple pages already, but Chach is appropriate for the association with destruction. Also for the inverted virtue of bravery→cowardice.
Sad to see all of the listeners overwhelmed by the new form. Venli’s familiarity allows for resistance, which is fortunate for her.
Heck of a time to have a change of heart or moment of rea
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Chapter 94 (Sacrifice)
Icons: Vev. Loving?
Epigraph: Now you’re just being a tease. “Oh, yes, I know the secrets of the Recreance. I will tell them to you after five more paragraphs of filler to fit into epigraphs, so that the readers don’t learn anything interesting.”
Resolving not to let Shallan rescue him would be the right answer if it weren’t tinged with such dejection and feelings of worthlessnes
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Chapter 93 (Strong Enough)
Title: But strong enough for what? To attack a herald, or to let her husband be taken, or to face her own truth? Not that last one, since Formless hasn’t been around long enough to deserve that climax, but she could still go either way. Oh, who am I kidding. She’s on the downslope right now. She’ll make the aggressive choice.
Icons: Nale. Presumably because Kelek is rendering judg
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Chapter 92 (A Gift)
Icon: Vev. Just Vev. Loving/Healing, presumably, and that’s something that Venli needs more of, so I’ll support this.
Epigraph: Why is Kelek explaining this to his would-be captors? I’m not sure sharing this information is a good idea. Interesting to note that yes, capturing one in a gem cuts off their bonds. So I was wrong last chapter in speculating about Syl.
Venli is recovering/
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Chapter 91 (Worth Saving)
Icons: Jez and Vev–healing and windrunners. Looks like a Teft chapter.
Epigraph: Okay, this one is worth quoting.
This is sure sounding like Shallan/Formless will go through with it, which is how we get access to this note. But there are a couple things that make me think it’s misleading, beyond Brandon’s penchant for doing that. First, the apparent audience of the note. It
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Chapter 90 (One Chance)
Icons: Four this time. Jez, Nan, Ishar, Shash. Notably, Palah is absent so I don’t think Maya will show up this chapter.
Epigraph: I wonder if it would make a difference if he knew that the current threat to his life and freedom was coming from a different quarter than the Fused? Also, don’t do it, Shallan.
I’m once again curious about the political situation of Lasting Integrit
