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About this blog

I'm going to post my reactions and analysis of Rhythm of War chapter by chapter as I go through. Contains spoilers for RoW, obviously, and for the Cosmere in general as I'll probably be theory crafting as I go.

Entries in this blog

Endnote and Ars Arcanum

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Endnote I’ll admit I don’t really get this ketek. I’m going to have to think about it for a bit. It’s disturbing that it’s written by El, who in this case is noted to be a/the “Fused scholar of human art forms.” Is this endnote by Nazh? Who else would be collecting the keteks and writing commentary about singer interpretation of Alethi poetic styles? The typeface isn’t different, so we can’t positively iden
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Epilogue

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Epilogue (Dirty Tricks) Icons: Jester and Ash (mirrored) –Wit the lightweaver, naturally Design is the sort of audience member Wit needs: unimpressed and… I want to say snarky but she’s more genuine than that. Willing to object. Wit, on considering Sja-Anat’s expanding influence. This is striking because Sja-Anat has been shown to be working for the benefit of Roshar and against Odium. Is there somet
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Chapter 117

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 117 (One Final Gift) Icons: Kalak and Jez, mirrored. Okay, I’m a little conflicted here. I need to admit that I read this chapter twice, since I mostly neglected to take notes on it the first time through. The strange thing is, the first read-through I was annoyed at the placement of the chapter. I thought, “why wait until now to show us Eshonai’s death? Wouldn’t it have been better at the end of Wo
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Chapter 116

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 116 (Mercy) Icons: Shash, Jez, and double Ishar (not mirrored)  I’m about to give up on interpreting these odd arrangements. What is up with the mirroring/not-mirroring thing? Why 3?  Epigraph: El is aware of the change in Odium’s vessel, and has been “waiting to worship” the new one. I’m not any more enamored of this guy than I was from the previous musings. Good, Kaladin is intentionally ta
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Chapter 115

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 115 (Testament) Icons: Kalak and Ash, mirrored as per usual. My guess about the symmetry being broken is wrong, or only applies to chapters with the new Odium. Epigraph: This El seems like a jolly fellow. Let’s support his candidacy for overlord. Shallan is trying to rehabilitate her first spren, now named Testament. This is going to be a long, laborious process. Props to Shallan for embarking
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Chapter 114

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 114 (Broken Gods) Icons: Betab and Palliah, doubled but not mirrored, similar to last chapter. Hm. Has the symmetry been broken by the ascension of a new Odium? Is that what’s going on here? I guess I’ll have to see if the pattern holds. Chapter icon is intelligent Taravangian. Epigraph: Speaking as a human, I’m not too keen on being helped to my “final Passion,” thanks. Sorry, El. Not a fan of th
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Chapter 113

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. NOTE: Many, many apologies for the delay. Yes, it's been six months since my last entry. Don't worry, we're in the home stretch now. The end is in sight! Chapter 113 (Emotion) Icons: Compassionate Taravangian at the top. Chach and Nale as dual herald icons, but not mirrored. Weird. What’s this intended to mean? Epigraph: Best guess is that El is going to be Odium’s champion. I don’t think we’ve met him ye
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Chapter 112

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 112 (Terms) Title: Are we really going to try making a contract with Odium now? I sure hope not. It doesn’t feel earned. Hopefully this is about the terms they will set with their allied Fused in the Tower. Icons: Betab. Patron of Elsecallers, also Wise and Careful. I’m going to hope it’s something to do with Rlain’s new Elsecaller status. Epigraph: This might be the first in-text confirmation that O
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Chapter 111

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 111 (Unchained) Title: Probably most intended as a reference to the Sibling, but I imagine it will be a broadly applicable theme. Icons: Quartet of Chach, Ishar, Palah, and Jez. Hard to speculate for Chach and Palah. Epigraph: How recent are we talking, here? I assume this is post-epilogue material, and El is aware that Urithiru was retaken and the Sibling revived. He really doesn’t think it
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Chapter 110

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 110 (Reborn) Icons: Jez and Ishar. We’re back to our regular mirrored doublet, so maybe things are calming down? Looks like windrunner and bondsmith shenanigans inbound. Epigraph: Really? Now you’re teasing us with one word at a time? This is getting silly. Okay, that is a lot more windspren than I expected. Kaladin is overachieving again, opening a glowing channel from the top of the storm to the
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Chapter 109

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 109 (Emulsifier) Icons: Four with Ishar, Kelek, Jez, and Palah. Best guess with the title is that Rlain is going to help emulsify the Warlight, hence Ishar for Bondsmith. Kelek for Venli as willshaper, and Jez for Kaladin doing stuff. Not sure about Palah, though.  Epigraph: This is getting tedious. Lots of little backhanded compliments for the slaves El wants to rule. Get to the point, please.
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Chapter 108

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 108 (Moments) Icons: Mirrored triad: Taln, Vev, with Jez doubled. Windrunner moments, plus endurance and healing? Epigraph: Confused but brilliant? Sure, I’ll take that compliment, El. On a tent in Amaram’s colors. Is this Tien, and he doesn’t recognize him? I am not sure how this vision will be helpful, Dalinar.  Kaladin hasn’t learned that in living the vision he inhabits memories of the on
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Chapter 107

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 107 (Uniting) Icons: Four: Kek, Chach, Jez, Ishi. I got nothing. Epigraph: These short snippets are infuriatingly meaningless on their own. Clump them into a single epigraph so that there’s room for more meat. Or, alternatively, just tell us who El is! Is it significant that the mural navani smears blood on is the one of a willshaper spren? I don’t think so–it seems like it’s probably just added c
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Chapter 106

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. 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

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. 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

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. 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

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. 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

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. 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

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. 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

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. 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

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. 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

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. 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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Starting Part Five

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. 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

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. 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

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. 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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